LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

PRINCETON,  N.  J. 

Presented  by 

_. . .  r1 

BR  100  .M86  1917 

Murray,  David  Ambrose,  1861- 

The  supernatural 

Co  p.  I 


The  Supernatural 

Or 

Fellowship  With  God 


By  the  Same  Author 

D.  A.  MURRAY,  D.  D. 

Christian  Faith  and  the  New 
Psychology 

Evolution  and  Recent  Science  as  Aids  to  Faith 
8vot  cloth,  net  $1.50 

"  Do  evolution  and  modern  psychology  invalidate  the 
supernatural  element  in  Christian  Faith  ?  That  is  a  ques- 
tion that  is  giving  many  earnest  minds  much  trouble  these 
days,  and  it  is  the  question  that  Dr.  Murray  essays  to 
answer.  His  answer  is,  no  !  On  the  contrary,  he  finds  in 
the  evolutionary  interpretation  of  nature  what  he  holds  to 
be  even  firmer  ground  for  belief  in  a  personal  Creator. 
An  admirable  piece  of  Christian  apologetics."— Lutheran 
Observer. 

"  Dr.  Murray  may  be  classed  among  the  mediators  be- 
tween modern  thought  and  evangelical  theology.  Evolu- 
tion and  the  New  Psychology  are  to  him  not  sources  of 
difficulty  as  a  Christian  thinker,  but  aids  to  faith.  A  most 
original  and  stimulating  book." — The  Continent. 

"  An  uncommonly  strong  book,  full  of  meat  and  inspi- 
ration. The  author  has  a  brain  and  a  pen." — Zion's 
Herald. 

"The  cardinal  points  of  the  Christian  religion  are  here 
treated  from  a  purely  scientific  view-point.  Not  in  recent 
years  have  we  read  anything  so  clear,  from  a  scientific 
point  of  view,  so  satisfactory  or  so  reassuring  to  Christian 
faith  as  this  volume." — The  United  Presbyterian. 

«  One  of  the  most  significant  of  the  recent  works  in  the 
field  of  Christian  apologetics.  ...  In  no  other  work 
have  these  ideas  been  brought  together  and  elaborated 
with  the  scientific  accuracy  as  in  this  book.  It  should  be 
of  great  interest  to  the  theologian,  the  scientific  student 
and  the  modern  reader." — Chicago  Evening  Post. 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company, 

Publishers 


The  Supernatural 

Or 

Fellowship  With  God 


By 
A.  MUI 


DAVID  A.  MURRAY,  D.  D. 

Author  of"  Christian  Faith  and  the  New  Psychology"  etc* 


New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming    H.     Revell    Company 

London  and        Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1917,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:       100    Princes    Street 


To  the  memory  of 
My  Wife's  Father 

Thomas  Dove  Foster 

Who  while  conducting  a  large  business  on  Christian 
principles  was  also  able,  in  public  service,  in 
municipal  reform,  in  Society,  in  the  Church,  and  in 
all  his  daily  personal  contact  with  men,  to  demon- 
strate that  a  close  walk  of  Fellowship  with  God  is 
the  surest  source  of  both  Character  and  Social  Service, 

This  book  is  affectionately  inscribed 


Preface 

DIFFERENT  ages  have  had  different  religious 
problems.  Once  it  was  the  question  of  Mono- 
theism. In  the  early  Christian  centuries  it 
was  the  Person  of  Christ.  At  the  Reformation  it  was 
the  immediate  access  of  the  soul  to  God.  To-day  the 
great  contest  seems  to  be  along  the  line  of  Naturalism. 

Science  in  the  past  century  and  a  half  has  made 
enormous  advances  throughout  the  whole  range  of 
secular  knowledge.  It  has  demanded  universal  do- 
main. Religion  has  refused  to  be  included  on  the  same 
plane  as  other  knowledge,  and  science  has  retaliated  by 
either  ignoring  it  or  denying  its  validity.  Especially 
have  its  supernatural  postulates  been  most  confidently 
challenged. 

What  will  be  the  outcome?  Can  religion  again 
make  good  its  ancient  isolation  in  a  world  with  which 
science  has  nothing  to  do?  Will  science  succeed  in 
annihilating  belief  in  the  supernatural,  and  be  able  with- 
out it  to  build  up  in  its  own  domain  a  satisfactory 
religion  drawn  entirely  from  natural  sources  ? 

Or  will  it  be  possible  in  some  way  to  give  religion, 
just  as  it  is,  with  all  its  supernatural  features  intact,  a 
recognized  standing  and  established  place  in  the  world 
of  scientific  thought?    Can  it  be  coordinated  in  its 

7 


8  PEEFACE 

present  form  with  all  the  rest  of  the  discovered  uni- 
verse facts  in  one  unified  consistent  system  ? 

It  is  confronting  that  situation  that  the  following 
studies  have  taken  up  this  most  difficult  question  of  the 
place  of  the  supernatural  in  religion  and  in  the  universe 
scheme. 

D.  A.  M. 
Tsuj  Ise,  Japan. 


Contents 

Part  I 

PROBLEMS 

I.  The  Book 15 

The  Burden  of  the  Supernatural. 

II.  Definition 21 

Reconciling  Theories. 

Real    Significance    of  the    Supernatural   in  the 
Bible. 

III.  The  Point  of  View 35 

Character  and  Service. 

Embarrassing  Results  Arise. 

Eliminating  the  Supernatural. 

Legitimate  Results  of  the  Different  View-Points. 

Is  This  the  True  Meaning  of  Religion  ? 

Fellowship  with  God. 

Historical  Meaning  of  the  Term. 

The  Meaning  of  the  Bible  Religion. 

IV.  Social  Service 58 

Fellowship  a  Higher  Thing. 

Fellowship  Stimulates  Service,  and  Yet  That  is 

Not  Its  Main  Purpose. 
Social  Service  is  Fellowship,  and  Yet  Fellowship 

Transcends  It. 
Fellowship  Demands  Service,  But  it  is  Service 

for  Fellowship's  Sake. 
Mistaken  Conceptions  of  Fellowship. 

V.  Place  of  Religion  in  Evolution         .        .      68 

God's  Relation  to  This  World. 

What  Was  God's  Purpose  ? 

Fellowship  is  the  Highest  Kind  of  Satisfaction. 

Clear-Cut  Concept  of  God. 

9 


CONTENTS 

Purpose  of  the  Whole  Evolution  Process. 
The  Evolution  Process  Foreshadows  Fellowship 
by  Men  with  God. 

Value  of  the  Supernatural    .        .        .83 

Secondary  Uses. 

Primary  Motive  of  the  Supernatural. 

Fellowship  Must  Consist  of  Just  Such  Acts. 

It  is  Fellowship  for  Fellowship's  Sake. 

This  Supernatural  Regime  the  Basis  of  Religion. 

Silent  Fellowship. 

Teaching  Value  of  the  Supernatural. 

An  Illustration. 

Special  Providence. 

Not  Under  Law  but  Grace. 

Prayer 105 

Prayer  Implies  the  Supernatural. 

Answers  to  Prayer. 

Intercessory  Prayer. 

Our  Prayer  Makes  the  Thing  Possible  for  God. 

Immutability  of  Natural  Law. 

Doing  a  Thing  Asked  for  Becomes  a  Matter 

of  Fellowship. 
Illustrations. 
Laws  of  Prayer. 

Punishment 129 

Manufacture  and  Use. 
Punishment  All  Belongs  to  Natural  Law. 
Punishment   Only  a  By-Product  in  the  Super- 
natural. 
Punishment  by  God. 

Genesis  of  Christianity    ....     142 

Ethics,  Theology  and  Religion. 

Main  Purpose  of  the  Bible  is  Not  to  Reveal 

Knowledge. 
Genesis  of  Fellowship. 
Evolution  Specializes. 
God  a  Typical  Friend. 


CONTENTS  11 

Part  II 
THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

I.  Purpose  of  the  Bible  .        .        .        .        .159 

A  Biography. 

Nature  of  a  Biography. 

II.  Israel .  164 

Specialness  a  Necessity. 
Friendship  of  God. 

III.  Abraham .     172 

Beginning  of  the  Era  of  Religion. 

How  Will  Fellowship  Begin  ? 

Tutelar  Divinities. 

Two  Separate  Relations. 

Always  as  Friend,  Not  as  Moral  Ruler  in  the 
Supernatural  Acts. 

Familiar  Approachableness  Rather  Than  Great- 
ness. 

IV.  Moses 187 

Reason  for  Miracles  at  This  Time. 

Beginning  of  the  Movement. 

Using  Natural  Law. 

Personal  Care. 

At  Mount  Sinai. 

Ruler  or  Friend  ? 

Other  Incidents. 

The  Fundamental  Question. 

V.  Elijah 209 

All  at  Special  Times. 
The  Great  Crisis. 
Restricted  to  a  Special  Group. 
Later  Instances. 

VI.  Prophecy 220 

Inspiration. 

The  Supernatural   Must  be  Evident  in  Order 

to  be  Justifiable. 
Didactic  Writings. 
Credibility  of  Prophecy. 
Place  in  God's  Plan. 


12  CONTENTS 

Conversation  Begun  at  Sinai. 
Continuous  Order  of  Prophets. 
Divine  Revelation  of  Teaching. 
Personal  Atmosphere. 
Severe  Prophecies. 

VII.  National  History 241 

Bible  Characters  All  Normal  Men. 
Lessons  from  God's  Dealings  with  Nations. 
Lessons  from  God's  Dealings  with  Israel. 
Peculiar  Attitude  Towards  Idolatry. 
Israel's   Friend   Rather  Than  the  Moral  Ruler 
of  the  World. 

VIII.  God  and  Individuals         .         .        .        .255 

Nature  of  the  Supernatural  Punishments. 

Men  of  Low  Social  Level. 

Harsh  and  Cruel  Men. 

God's  Companionship  with  Good  Men. 

Attitude  Towards  Bad  Men. 

The  Old  Testament  Gospel. 

Part  III 
THE  CHRIST 

I.  The  Incarnation       .....    277 

The  Fact  of  the  Incarnation. 

Possibility  of  the  Incarnation. 

Purpose  of  the  Incarnation. 

Its  Place  in  the  Evolution  Scheme. 

Fellowship  Always  Specific  and  Limited. 

The  Personality  of  Jesus. 

The  Model  Friend. 

Dislike  for  Publicity. 

Jesus'  Miracles. 

The  Miracles  Proof  of  Jesus'  Humanity. 

II.  Atonement 302 

Love  His  Supreme  Motive. 

Love  Begets  Suffering. 

Atonement. 

Love  Produced  His  Death. 


PART  I 
Problems 


THE  BOOK 

CHRISTIANITY  has  sometimes  been  called  The 
Religion  of  a  Book.  While  it  is  more  than 
that,  the  designation  is  not  entirely  inappro- 
priate. A  book,  the  Bible,  has  always  had  a  supreme 
place  in  the  Christian  system  and  been  considered  the 
authoritative  source  of  its  teaching.  The  expression 
"To  believe  the  Bible"  has  often,  not  inaptly,  been 
used  as  the  equivalent  of  being  a  Christian. 

The  Bible  is  still  the  most  widely  read  book  of  all 
literature,  and  recent  years  have  seen  a  distinct  revival 
in  its  study  and  esteem.  Yet  we  cannot  fail  to  notice 
a  decided  change  in  the  nature  of  that  esteem,  and  in 
the  place  it  holds  in  men's  hearts. 

A  generation  ago  our  fathers  studied  the  book  with 
reverence  as  "The  Word  of  God,"  the  food  of  the 
soul,  "The  only  infallible  rule  of  faith  and  practice." 
To-day,  with  all  our  reviving  appreciation,  we  approach 
the  Book  with  a  critical  reserve.  It  is  to  us  a  book  of 
great  value  and  absorbing  interest.  It  has  a  most 
honoured  place  on  the  shelf  of  great  ethical  and  literary 
classics.  But  all  questions  as  to  its  authority  or  divinity 
we  rather  prefer  not  to  have  raised. 

Several  causes  have  contributed  to  remove  the  old 
halo  from  the  Book.     The  scientific  spirit  of  the  age, 

15 


16  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

the  work  of  the  Higher  Criticism,  the  study  of  Com- 
parative Religion,  together  with  a  natural  reaction  from 
a  too  mystical,  if  not  mechanical,  conception  of  its 
origin,  have  all  had  their  influence. 

Another  thing  that  has  contributed  much  to  this 
result  is  the  fact  that  the  attention  of  the  Christian 
men  of  this  generation  is  being  so  centered  on  Social 
Service  that  we  do  not  feel  nearly  as  much  concern  as 
our  fathers  did  about  distinctly  divine  things. 

Unquestionably  this  call  of  Social  Service  marks  the 
highest  level  of  ethical  purpose  the  Church  has  yet 
attained.  And  yet  life  is  so  large,  and  its  many  parts 
so  interdependent,  that  it  is  never  safe  to  enshrine  any 
one  particular  part  as  the  whole  and  ignore  all  others. 
It  might  always  be  possible  that  there  was  a  something 
else  which  was  as  necessary  to  this  social  activity  as  the 
root  is  to  the  flower, — something  from  which  it  draws 
its  origin  and  without  which  it  could  not  permanently 
exist. 

Still  we  cannot  lightly  regard  any  spontaneous  and 
universal  tendency.  The  survival  of  the  fittest  is  the 
wise  law  of  nature.  If  the  Bible  really  is  not  entitled 
to  the  old  place  of  supreme  religious  guide,  if  it  has  not 
the  qualifications  to  satisfy  the  religious  needs  of  men, 
and  if  it  cannot  prove  its  claim  to  divine  authority, 
we  will  have  to  acquiesce  and  see  it  dethroned  and 
superseded,  no  matter  how  painful  it  may  be  to  tear  up 
the  roots  of  old  affections  and  associations. 

But  so  much  is  at  stake  that  before  we  finally  rest  in 
such  a  drastic  change  it  will  not  be  unreasonable  to 
permit  still  another  sympathetic  examination,  to  see  if 


THE  BOOK  17 

possibly  the  fault  may  not  lie,  after  all,  in  our  misinter- 
pretations and  misunderstandings,  and  if  the  old  Book 
which  has  brought  comfort  and  spiritual  strength  to  so 
many  generations  of  our  fathers  may  not  still,  when 
rightly  understood,  continue  to  come  to  us  as  the  voice 
of  God  pointing  the  way  of  Eternal  Life. 

The  Burden  of  the  Supernatural 
When  we  take  up  the  Bible  for  study  we  are  im- 
mediately met  by  the  great  question  of  the  Supernatural. 
The  whole  message  of  the  Bible,  as  it  has  come  to  us 
and  as  it  has  had  such  influence  in  the  world,  is  a 
distinct  assertion  of  the  Supernatural. 

It  is  not  merely  that  we  find  accounts  of  miracles  in 
the  Bible  history.  That  is  not  an  unusual  feature  in 
very  old  records.  And  it  is  not  only  that  these  miracles 
are  so  numerous  and  such  a  fundamental  feature  of  the 
narratives  that  it  has  been  found  impossible  to  success, 
fully  remove  them  without  destroying  all  the  meaning 
and  value  of  the  narratives  themselves.  It  is  more  than 
that.  The  very  essence  of  our  religion  is  a  relation  to 
the  unseen  God  which  is  distinctly  supernatural.  The 
central  object  of  our  religious  trust  is  the  Jesus  Christ 
which  the  Book  portrays,  and  that  Christ,  though 
there  have  been  technical  discussions  as  to  His  actual 
deity,  has  in  the  past  always  been  considered  by  all 
Christians  to  be  a  supernatural  person.  And,  more 
fundamental  still,  the  very  fact  of  any  real  revelation 
being  made  by  God  at  all  in  any  form  or  by  any  means 
is  a  distinctly  supernatural  matter,  and  so  indeed  is  any 
real  communication  with  Him  in  prayer  or  worship. 


18  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

The  whole  trend  of  thought  to-day,  however,  seems 
to  be  distinctly  unfriendly  to  any  suggestion  of  the 
supernatural.  The  scientific  spirit  of  the  times  makes 
a  peremptory  challenge  of  everything  that  has  any 
element  of  the  supernatural  in  it.  Such  an  exceedingly 
wide  range  of  facts  has  been  brought  under  the  domain 
of  explainable  cause  and  effect  that  men  are  disposed  to 
consider  the  thesis  proved  that  everything  belongs  in 
that  domain,  and  nothing  is  to  be  received  as  fact  that 
cannot  be  so  classified. 

Whatever  our  own  belief  or  wish  in  the  matter,  we 
have  to  recognize  that  the  popular  feeling  is  strongly 
against  the  supernatural.  Such  an  account  is  now  no 
longer  received  on  the  same  testimony  that  would  sub- 
stantiate any  ordinary  event.  It  is  even  claimed  by 
some  that  the  one  fact  of  an  alleged  event  being  super- 
natural is  sufficient  to  invalidate  any  possible  amount 
of  testimony  that  could  be  brought  to  prove  its  occur- 
rence. 

But  the  Bible,  as  a  historical  phenomenon  to  be 
studied,  is  a  book  of  the  supernatural.  The  Bible 
which  has  had  such  a  hold  on  men's  minds,  and  which 
has  had  such  enormous  influence  to  lift  up  the  world 
and  make  men  and  society  better,  has  been  the  Bible 
accepted  in  the  form  we  have  it  now,  with  its  super- 
natural incidents  and  with  the  traditional  estimate  of 
its  supernatural  character.  It  is  as  a  supernatural 
Bible,  recording  supernatural  events,  that  it  has  had 
this  power,  and  it  is  precisely  the  belief  of  its  super- 
naturalness  which  has  been  the  main  thing  that  has 
given  it  this  power  and  influence. 


THE  BOOK  19 

Historically  it  has  not  been  appreciation  of  the  in- 
trinsic value  of  the  teaching  and  of  the  high  excellence 
of  the  ethical  standards,  which  has  given  the  Book  its 
great  power,  so  much  as  rather  the  firm  belief  that  it 
is  from  God  and  that  it  gives  us  an  immediate  touch 
with  God.  It  would  be,  to  say  the  least,  very  disquiet- 
ing to  our  moral  instincts  to  be  compelled  to  believe  that 
a  falsehood  and  delusion  had  been  the  cause  of  such 
preeminent  moral  benefit  and  uplift  in  the  world. 

As  we  examine  the  path  of  progress  in  the  past  we 
find  that  it  has  been  by  evolution  rather  than  by  revo- 
lution. We  are  prepared  to  expect  evolution,  expansion 
and  clarification  in  our  views  as  to  God's  personal  rela- 
tions and  communications  to  men,  but  it  would  be 
drastic  revolution  to  have  to  believe  that  no  revelations 
of  any  kind  have  ever  occurred  at  all. 

Certainly,  then,  this  question  of  the  supernatural  is  a 
most  pressing  question  and  one  that  is  vital  in  our  whole 
religious  situation.  It  is  a  question  that  will  confront 
us  all  through  our  study  of  the  Bible.  For  the  super- 
natural is  not  merely  an  incident  in  the  Bible  and  Chris- 
tian system.  It  is  not  merely  a  tint  or  auxiliary  figure 
in  the  picture  but  it  is  the  main  subject  of  the  picture 
itself.  It  is  not  something  that  can  be  easily  expunged 
or  explained  away,  for  it  is  the  distinctive  texture  of  the 
Book  and  the  fundamental  basis  of  the  whole  system. 

Before  making  any  direct  study  of  the  Bible  text, 
then,  it  will  be  necessary  to  make  a  somewhat  thorough 
inquiry  into  this  whole  question  of  the  supernatural, 
both  as  to  its  place  in  religion  and  as  to  its  possible  re- 
lation to  science  and  the  whole  world  of  evolution. 


20  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL 

If  we  find  that  it  is  positively  declared  impossible  by 
science,  and  especially  if  we  find  that  it  is  not  only  un- 
necessary but  incompatible  with  the  interests  of  relig- 
ion, that  must  end  the  inquiry  for  us. 

But  if  we  find,  on  the  other  hand,  that  science  has 
really  nothing  positive  to  say  against  it,  and  that  it  is 
not  only  compatible  with  the  highest  interpretation  of 
religion,  but  is  a  fundamental  and  indispensable  postu- 
late of  all  religion,  then  that  will  not  only  open  the 
way  for  a  detailed  study  of  the  supernatural  in  the 
Bible,  but  will  make  that  investigation  and  study  a 
matter  of  absorbing  interest  and  importance. 

The  first  matter,  then,  for  us  to  consider  is  this  prob- 
lem of  the  validity  of  the  supernatural.  Must  every- 
thing supernatural  in  our  religion  and  in  the  Bible  be 
necessarily  rejected  as  impossible  of  belief,  and  must 
our  whole  attitude  and  estimate  be  recast  to  fit  that 
view,  even  though, — as  inevitably  it  must, — it  should 
reduce  the  Book  to  a  rather  questionable  fiction  and 
require  an  entire  reconstruction  of  the  grounds,  and 
even  the  substance,  of  our  religious  belief  ? 

Or,  on  the  other  hand,  is  it  still  reasonable  to  con- 
sider some  or  all  of  the  supernatural  in  the  Book  as 
true?  Can  we  reasonably  receive  the  Book  and  the 
religion  it  teaches  as  containing  in  a  literal  and  real 
sense  a  revelation  of  God  ?  May  our  Christian  relig- 
ion, with  its  supernatural  Book,  its  supernatural  Christ 
and  its  supernatural  salvation  still  be  believed,  and  still 
continue  to  bring  to  us  the  same  peace,  strength  and 
heart  comfort  as  it  has  to  our  fathers  for  so  many 
generations  ? 


n 

DEFINITION 

WHAT  do  we  mean  by  "  The  Supernatural "  ? 
While  the  term  is  one  in  very  familiar  use 
there  is  more  or  less  indefiniteiiess  as  to  its 
precise  meaning.  It  will  be  important  to  have  a  precise 
definition  if  we  are  to  discuss  the  supernatural  in  the 
Bible. 

There  are  various  definitions  that  merely  look  at  the 
strangeness  of  the  events  alleged,  or  that  treat  them  as 
though  they  were  to  be  considered  as  events  occurring 
without  any  adequate  cause.  We  may  pass  all  such 
definitions  by  as  not  pertinent  to  our  inquiry. 

The  most  obvious  definition  is  that  which  grows  out 
of  the  etymology  of  the  word.  There  is  a  range  of 
events  that  are  usually  called  natural  events.  Any- 
thing different  from  or  outside  of  that  range  of  events 
would  be  called  "  Supernatural."  One  objection  to  this 
is  that  it  is  a  negative  definition.  A  definition  should 
be  positive,  describing  a  thing  by  what  it  is  rather  than 
by  what  it  is  not. 

Yery  often  the  term  is  used  to  denote  that  an  event 
was  directly  caused  by  God,  in  distinction  from  ordi- 
nary events  that  are  caused  by  natural  law.  But,  as 
Christians,  we  believe  that  all  natural  events  are  en- 
tirely the  work  of  God  just  as  truly  as  the  supernatural. 
If  however  we  recognize  this  and  say  that  God  provided 

21 


22  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL 

for  one  great  system  of  cause  and  effect  which  we  call 
Natural  Law,  and  any  things  that  He  does  which  are 
not  included  in  that  would  be  called  Supernatural,  it 
would  be  more  nearly  an  adequate  definition,  but  yet 
this  too  would  be  unsatisfactory  in  several  respects. 

It  is  not  easy  or  possible  often  to  decide  positively 
whether  a  given  occurrence  would  come  inside  or  out- 
side the  working  of  natural  law.  Many  things  reported 
in  the  Bible  that  once  would  have  been  considered  out- 
side of  the  province  of  natural  law  are  now  known  to  be 
easily  producible  entirely  within  the  working  of  natural 
agencies.  At  one  time  all  visions  were  considered  to  be 
certainly  of  that  character.  We  now  know  that  such 
phenomena  can  be  produced  altogether  subjectively 
and  by  purely  natural  causes. 

All  the  wonderful  events  narrated  as  occurring  in  con- 
nection with  the  migration  of  the  Israelites  from  Egypt 
to  Canaan  were  once  looked  upon  as  the  very  types  of 
the  supernatural.  We  now  consider  that  the  crossing 
of  the  Ked  Sea  (Ex.  14  :  21  ff.)  and  of  the  Jordan  (Josh. 
3  :  14-17),  the  fall  of  the  walls  of  Jericho  (Josh.  6  :  20), 
many  of  the  plagues  in  Egypt  (Ex.  7-10)  and  various 
other  things,  might  possibly  all  have  been  produced  by 
the  normal  working  of  natural  agencies.  And  yet 
there  are  imperative  reasons  for  putting  these  events 
into  the  same  classification  as  all  the  other  events  to 
which  the  name  Supernatural  is  applied.  They  are 
preeminently  referred  to  in  the  after  record  as  examples 
of  God's  special  interposition  and  favour,  and  they 
could  have  no  legitimate  religious  value  or  significance 
otherwise. 


DEFINITION  23 

Our  definition  of  natural  law  is  a  very  unstable  and 
unsatisfactory  one.  Yery  commonly  it  depends  chiefly 
upon  frequency  and  regularity  of  occurrence.  Espe- 
cially is  that  true  with  those  that  hold  that  the  effi- 
ciency behind  all  causation  comes  ultimately  from  God. 

For  instance,  we  would  say  that  it  was  a  recognized 
part  of  natural  law  that  Life  can  beget  life.  "We  say 
so  because  it  is  a  familiar  and  frequent  phenomenon. 
But  suppose  that  in  all  history  there  had  only  been  one 
single  case  where  a  parent  had  begotten  offspring  and 
life  had  begotten  life.  Or  suppose  we  were  consider- 
ing the  very  first  of  the  long  series  of  instances  in 
which  this  has  taken  place,  for  everything  must  have 
a  first  instance.  According  to  our  assumed  canons  we 
must  unquestionably  consider  that  sole,  or  that  first, 
instance  an  instance  of  the  supernatural. 

Suppose  on  the  other  hand  after  a  while  it  should 
come  to  be  the  regular  and  usual  order  of  occurrence 
that  after  a  man  died,  and  his  body  entirely  dissolved 
away,  at  the  end  of  a  short  interval  his  soul  should 
somehow  construct  for  itself  a  new  body,  and  he  would 
go  on  living  in  the  world  again  the  same  as  before. 
Such  a  state  of  affairs  is  at  least  conceivable,  and  it  is 
much  more  inherently  probable  even  now  than  a  few 
billion  years  ago  it  was  that  such  a  phenomenon  as  life 
should  appear  and  one  life  be  able  to  beget  another. 
But  if  that  were  a  thing  that  was  constantly  happening 
we  would  say  just  as  unquestionably  that  Kesurrection 
was  an  ordinary  feature  of  natural  law. 

Now  if  all  things  act  as  they  do  because  God  has 
constituted  them  to  do  so,  we  can  form  no  certain 


54  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

)rejudgment  as  to  what  order  of  things  He  may  choose 
-o  make  occur  frequently  in  the  future,  and  so,  the  first 
ime  any  species  of  event  occurs  we  have  no  way  to 
udge  whether  it  must  be  called  a  natural  or  a  super- 
latural  event.  There  is  no  intrinsic  quality  by  which 
me  event  must  be  classified  as  natural  and  another  as 
iupernatural.  Any  division  we  make  must  be  entirely 
iependent  upon  the  lottery  of  our  conjecture  as  to  what 
jrod  intends  to  do  in  the  future. 

Reconciling  Theories 

With  this  in  mind  it  might  not  unreasonably  be 
claimed  that  all  things  that  occur,  whether  in  con- 
inuous  series  or  singly  and  unique,  might  be  plausibly 
jailed  Natural  just  because  they  are  parts  of  the  one 
^rearranged  plan  and  purpose  of  God.  If  any  miracle 
lid  really  occur  at  any  time  it  therein  became  and  was 
)roved  to  be  a  part  of  natural  law  just  as  much  as 
inything  else  is.  God's  purpose  must  be  consistent, 
inified  and  perfectly  articulated,  whether  we  see  it  or 
lot,  and  so  one  thing  just  as  legitimate  and  necessary 
i  part  of  it  as  any  other, — the  water  changed  to  wine 
>r  five  loaves  multiplied  by  the  word  of  Jesus  just  as 
nuch  as  the  similar  change  consummated  in  the  branches 
)f  the  vine  or  stalks  of  wheat  in  the  field,  provided 
-hese  things  actually  occurred.  And  so  with  a  legiti- 
nate  use  of  the  word  "  Natural "  we  might  classify 
everything  of  any  kind  that  actually  occurs  as  natural 
ust  because  it  does  occur  and  is  thereby  shown  to  be  a 
lecessary  part  of  the  one  universal  prearranged  plan. 

There  is  some  disposition  among  a  certain  group  of 


DEFINITION  25 

apologists  to  resolve  all  the  miracles  in  the  Bible  along 
some  such  line  as  that  and  thus  get  rid  of  the  burden 
of  the  supernatural  entirely.  In  one  sense  this  is  quite 
plausible.  It  is  quite  possible  to  subsume  all  things 
that  actually  occur,  even  the  most  unusual,  under  the 
same  category  and  demand  that  it  be  called  natural 
law.  For  every  kind  of  event  there  must  have  once 
been  a  first  time  that  it  occurred,  when  it  too  would 
have  been  unique  and  unusual.  What  better  con- 
ception of  Natural  than  to  classify  as  such  all  that  is 
contained  in  the  one  grand,  consistent  plan  of  God, 
whether  the  event  in  question  occurs  only  once  or 
occurs  many  millions  of  times  ?  In  this  way  it  would 
be  possible  to  claim  that  the  Bible  miracles  are  not 
supernatural  or  interruptions  of  natural  law  at  all. 

But  this  does  not,  unfortunately,  remove  any  of  the 
real  difficulty  after  all.  We  have  indeed  gotten  rid  of 
the  word  "  Supernatural "  and  are  relieved  of  the  stigma 
of  an  unwelcome  term,  but  that  is  all,  and  the  fact  of 
specialness  is  there  just  as  much  as  before.  These  so- 
called  miracles  must  certainly  have  been  produced  by 
a  different  order  of  agencies  or  in  a  different  way  from 
that  in  which  all  ordinary  events  are  produced.  The 
use  or  non  use  of  a  word  makes  no  difference.  It  is 
just  as  embarrassing  to  try  to  explain  why  God  de- 
parted from  the  order  of  agencies  which  He  had  found 
suitable  and  sufficient  in  all  the  rest  of  the  upward 
process  and  brought  in  special  acts  or  special  agencies,  no 
matter  whether  we  call  all  natural  or  whether  we  call 
one  order  of  agencies  natural  and  the  other  supernatural. 

It  does  not  comport  with  our  idea  of  God's  calm, 


26  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

competent  consistency  to  suppose  that  He  would  work 
in  that  way.  It  is  not  the  question  whether  God  was 
concerned  in  one  kind  of  agencies  more  than  in  the 
other,  nor  the  question  whether  He  could  not  if  He 
chose  change  and  use  new  agencies  instead  of  the  old 
agencies  He  had  used  to  produce  all  other  events.  The 
question  is,  Would  He  do  so  ?  What  would  be  gained 
by  this  inconsistency  and  extra  trouble  ?  Whatever 
difficulty  there  is  it  is  just  as  great  whether  we  call  all 
natural  or  whether  we  call  part  natural  and  the  rest 
supernatural.  It  is  merely  a  change  of  name  and  no 
change  in  the  fact  of  specialness. 

There  is  another  way  that  some  seek  to  escape  the 
charge  of  supernaturalness.  We  know  that  many  dis- 
eases can  be  healed  by  what  is  called  mental  healing, 
hypnotism  and  other  similar  ways.  Science  can  now 
do  easily  many  things  that  two  thousand  years  ago 
would  have  been  counted  superlatively  miraculous.  It 
is  a  fair,  logical  extension  to  suppose  that  many  things 
that  we  now  would  consider  impossible  or  miraculous, 
science  will  be  able  to  do  as  easily  at  some  future 
time. 

If  our  science  were  only  perfect  every  one  of  these 
wonderful  events  recorded  in  the  Bible  would  be  as 
easy  to  produce  by  any  of  us  as  it  is  now  to  produce 
hypnotic  phenomena  or  send  wireless  telegrams.  There 
was  no  interruption  of  natural  law  and  no  new  agency 
used  in  those  events,  but  merely  through  our  ignorance 
we  have  not  yet  become  familiar  with  and  able  to  use 
the  natural  agencies,  always  in  existence,  which  are 
adapted  to  produce  those  effects. 


DEFINITION  27 

While  there  is  a  certain  measure  of  plausibility  about 
this  theory,  and  while  it  does  not  rid  of  the  supernat- 
ural entirely,  yet  on  the  other  hand  it  would  really 
destroy  the  value  of  the  Book  and  the  incidents  en- 
tirely, and  be  fatal  to  the  whole  cause.  To  say  that 
the  miracles  of  Christ  and  the  apostles  were  of  that 
character  would  be  to  say  that  they  were  merely  works 
of  magic.  That  is  precisely  what  all  magic  is.  In  the 
occult,  miraculous  sense  in  which  the  term  is  commonly 
conceived,  of  course  there  is  no  such  thing  as  magic. 
All  real  events  that  have  been  believed  and  classed  as 
magic  have  been  merely  events  produced  in  ways  and 
by  means  that  the  spectators  did  not  understand. 

In  the  early  centuries  there  were  quite  a  number  of 
men,  of  whom  Simon  Magus  is  an  example  (Acts 
8  :  9-24),  who  did  these  magical  acts,  or  acts  which  the 
spectators  could  not  understand,  and  who  made  use  of 
them  to  accredit  some ,  religious  system  which  they 
taught.  On  this  theory  Christ  and  His  apostles  were 
on  precisely  the  same  level  with  these  men,  and  not 
different  from  them  in  any  respect.  In  both  cases 
equally  they  used  a  system  of  deception  to  accredit  a 
religious  system. 

For  it  cannot  be  denied  that  it  would  have  been  de- 
ception. Down  to  the  present  day  the  whole  Church 
has  given  decisive  value  to  these  alleged  supernatural 
phenomena  as  proof  that  the  Christian  religion  is  of 
God.  Moreover  Christ  Himself  distinctly  appealed  to 
them  as  proof  of  that  claim  (Luke  7 :  20-23 ;  John 
5  :  36  ;  10  :  25,  etc.).  This  then  would  have  been  a  case 
of  the  most  serious  kind  of  deception,  and  Christ  the 


28  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

most  serious  kind  of  a  deceiver  if,  after  all,  His  works 
were  merely  works  of  magic  and  not  special  divine  acts. 

Keal  Significance  of  the  Supernatural  in 
the  Bible 

We  shall  not  here  attempt  to  make  use  of  any  of 
these  short  cuts  to  a  solution  of  the  difficulty.  We 
shall  fully  assume  that  there  are  recorded  in  the  Bible 
events  that  are  special,  and  that  are  fundamentally  dif- 
ferent from  the  ordinary  events  which  we  call  Nature, 
— events  that  could  not  be  produced  by  any  causes  now 
available  to  men  or  spontaneously  in  operation  now. 
We  shall,  however,  prefer  not  to  define  them  by  saying 
that  they  are  not  natural,  or  telling  what  they  are  not, 
but  will  try  to  find  some  positive  characteristics  by 
which  we  can  define  them. 

One  thing,  however,  it  will  be  very  important  to  bear 
in  mind,  namely,  that  we  are  not  here  proposing  to 
consider  theoretically  the  whole  abstract  question  of 
the  supernatural  in  general,  but  are  seeking  to  examine 
a  very  concrete,  limited  group  of  incidents  recorded  in 
one  definite  book,  the  Bible.  It  is  only  of  that  group 
of  incidents  that  we  are  seeking  to  make  a  definition. 

If  we  examine  the  supernatural  events  recorded  in 
the  Bible  we  shall  find  that  they  are  all  events  or  acts 
produced  by  God  personally  for  the  specific  benefit  of 
some  person  or  restricted  group.  A  distinctive  feature 
of  all  of  them  is  their  personal  nature  and  restricted 
application. 

In  the  domain  of  nature  God  does  acts, — or,  what  is 
the  same  thing,  establishes  laws  and  forces, — that  are 


DEFINITION  29 

universal  in  their  application.  They  affect  everything 
everywhere  that  is  suited  to  be  affected  by  them. 
These  acts  are  not  so,  but  are  done  specifically  to  some 
one  person  or  group  alone.  They  all  have  that  peculiar 
quality  which  in  our  relations  with  one  another  we  call 
Personal,  that  is  they  appeal  to  the  consciousness  of  the 
individual  as  acts  intentionally  designed  for  him  spe- 
cifically.    Of  course  the  works  of  nature  do  not  do  so. 

All  the  other  operations  and  agencies  that  God  has 
instigated  are  continuous  and  permanent,  operating  in- 
variably whenever  the  given  conditions  are  present. 
These  acts  do  not  have  such  universal  automatic  repe- 
tition, but  are  narrowed  down  and  intentionally  re- 
stricted to  one  specific  case,  and  only  at  the  one  given 
time.  They  are  no  more  truly  acts  of  God  than  nat- 
ural acts  are,  but  they  are  singular,  personal  and  indi- 
vidual.    That  is  their  distinctive  feature. 

To  illustrate  : — we  say  that  it  is  the  nature  of  fire  to 
burn.  If  God  made  all  materials,  energies  and  laws, 
ordinary  burning  of  fire  is  God  acting.  It  always  and 
invariably  burns  when  the  suitable  material  is  in  con- 
tact with  it.  That  is  nature.  Now  we  could  conceiv- 
ably imagine  Go$.  some  time  so  altering  things  by  a 
special  act  that  fire  would  no  longer  burn,  or  would  not 
burn  during  a  given  period,  and  that  could  be  called  a 
supernatural  act,  perhaps,  though  there  are  no  acts  at 
all  of  that  character  or  that  class  in  this  group  of  Bible 
incidents  which  we  are  examining.  But  again  on  the 
other  hand  we  could  conceive  that  some  time  when 
certain  persons  to  whom  God  wished  to  show  a  per- 
sonal favour  were  thrown  into  the  fire,  God,  in  order 


30  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

to  save  them  from  being  burned,  so  restrained  the 
forces  which  usually  operated  that  they  were  not 
burned.  That  would  be  more  nearly  a  type  of  the 
miracles  of  the  Bible. 

In  one  sense  this  latter  would  merely  be  a  supernat- 
ural act  like  the  previous  one.  But  yet  there  is  a  pe- 
culiar personal  quality  about  it  which  really  makes  it 
quite  a  different  sort  of  thing,  and  warrants  us  in  con- 
sidering all  such  cases  in  a  class  by  themselves.  As  far 
as  the  mere  matter  of  power  is  concerned,  both  cases 
equally  imply  the  power  of  the  Creator, — of  the  one 
who  at  first  established  nature.  And  both  alike  are 
interruptions  of  the  invariable  working  of  that  first  es- 
tablished nature.  But  when  we  come  to  consider  the 
reasonableness  of  such  acts,  they  are  entirely  different. 
Their  meaning  would  be  different,  and  the  purposes  for 
which  they  could  conceivably  be  performed  would  be 
quite  different. 

It  is  of  this  class  of  acts  entirely  that  all  the  super- 
natural acts  recorded  in  the  Bible  consist, — acts  done 
personally  for  the  sake  of  specific  individuals.  We 
may  doubt  whether  there  have  ever  been  any  of  any 
other  kind.  But  whether  there  have  or  not,  this  is  the 
only  kind  that  is  recorded  in  this  group  that  we  are 
discussing,  and  so  all  our  discussion  of  them  may  pro- 
ceed on  that  basis.  "We  need  only  consider  them  as 
personal,  restricted  acts  of  God,  in  distinction  from  His 
universal  and  continuous  acts  which  constitute  nature. 

We  might  take  for  an  instance  the  account  of  God 
carrying  Elijah  up  by  a  chariot  of  fire  to  heaven 
(2  Kings  2: 11).     God  constituted  the  law  of  gravita- 


DEFINITION  31 

tion  in  the  beginning  by  which  everything  tends  to 
fall  downward  towards  the  earth.  Here  we  see  the 
body  of  Elijah  going  upward  instead  of  downward, 
contrary  to  that  law.  But  that  is  not  what  the  real 
meaning  and  value  of  the  incident  is. 

The  real  meaning  is  that  God  wished  to  personally 
perform  an  act  of  favour  to  the  specific  man  Elijah, 
and  did  so  irrespective  of  the  fact  that  the  process  by 
which  it  was  done  held  in  abeyance  or  reversed  the 
usual  law  of  gravitation.  It  is  the  personal  act  of  God 
to  the  specific  individual  which  is  the  whole  significance 
of  the  occurrence.  The  fact  of  its  interfering  or  not 
interfering  with  a  previous  law  of  nature  is  entirely  an 
incidental  feature. 

Or,  again,  suppose  that  God  had  at  some  time  spoken 
with  an  audible  voice  that  somehow  could  be  heard  by 
all  intelligent  beings,  outlining  some  very  important 
new  ethical  rules,  in  order  to  improve  the  moral  char- 
acter of  the  world.  We  certainly  would  call  that  a 
miracle, — a  supernatural  act  in  the  usual  definition  of 
the  term,  and  a  very  decided  interposition  into  the 
course  of  nature.  But  it  would  not  come  within  the 
class  of  occurrences  that  we  have  chosen  to  include  in 
our  definition,  and  of  which  we  have  said  that  all  the 
supernatural  in  the  Bible  consists.  We  may  express  a 
decided  doubt  if  there  have  ever  been  any  supernatural 
acts  of  that  character  occurring  anywhere,  and  if  there 
have  it  certainly  would  be  hard  to  reconcile  them  with 
the  reasonable  nature  of  all  God's  working. 

But  it  is  a  fact  of  an  entirely  different  nature  if  we 
suppose  God  has  a  special  interest  in  a  certain  group  of 


32  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

individuals,  and  in  order  to  make  them  feel  His  near- 
ness and  interest  in  them  personally,  He  speaks  with 
an  audible  voice  to  them  alone,  words  which  they  hear 
and  recognize  as  coming  from  Him  (Ex.  20 : 1-19 ; 
Deut.  5  :  4,  22).  The  fact  is  then  of  an  entirely  differ- 
ent nature  and  value,  even  though,  as  before,  these 
words  spoken  consist  of  important  moral  rules. 

We  are  told  that  in  our  blood  there  are  multitudes 
of  little  white  cells  that  act  almost  like  soldier  guards, 
attacking  and  destroying  harmful  microbes  and  other 
injurious  matter,  and  in  this  way  they  bring  about  re- 
covery from  disease.  Because  this  apparatus  has  all 
been  produced  naturally  in  the  course  of  evolution  we 
may  call  it  God's  plan  for  curing  disease  by  natural 
law.  Suppose,  however,  it  had  never  been  so  produced 
naturally,  but  God  had  some  time  suddenly  introduced 
all  this  apparatus  by  some  kind  of  a  special  interposi- 
tion. Or  suppose  He  should  thus  introduce  some  other 
universally  operating  apparatus  to  cure  disease.  We 
would  properly  call  that  a  supernatural  act  in  the  com- 
mon definition,  and  moreover  it  would  be  an  act  that 
it  would  be  most  difficult  to  reconcile  with  the  char- 
acter of  a  reasonable  creator. 

But  it  is  an  entirely  different  kind  of  a  matter  if  we 
suppose  a  divine  man  finds  a  sick  mother  in  the  home 
of  His  friend  Peter,  and  as  a  personal  act  of  friendship 
expels  the  disease  from  her  system  because  she  is  His 
friend  and  He  sympathizes  with  her  (Mark  1 :  30). 

It  is  of  this  latter  class  of  the  supernatural  that  we 
will  find  ail  the  supernatural  events  in  the  Bible  to  be 
composed,  and  it  is  this  class  to  which  we  shall  confine 


DEFINITION  33 

our  definition,  and  concerning  which  we  shall  make  our 
inquiry  and  discussion. 

We  may  define  the  supernatural  we  find  in  the  Bible 
then  as  follows : — The  supernatural  of  the  Bible  consists 
of  acts  of  God  which  were  done  to  single  individuals  or 
groups,  which  were  restricted  to  them  and  to  the  spe- 
cific occasion,  and  which  were  intended  to  impress  them 
as  personal  acts  of  God  definitely  directed  to  them  per- 
sonally. This  is  in  contrast  with  God's  impersonal, 
continuous,  universal  activities,  which  we  call  Nature. 

This  definition  will  take  in  a  few  acts,  like  the 
plagues  in  Egypt  and  the  crossing  of  the  Eed  Sea, 
which  were  produced  by  purely  natural  means,  and  yet 
ought  properly  to  be  included  in  the  same  class  with 
all  the  rest  of  the  special  or  supernatural  events.  But 
on  the  other  hand  there  is  no  supernatural  event  re- 
corded in  the  Bible  that  would  not  be  covered  by  that 
definition. 

Perhaps  it  would  have  been  better  if  we  had  found 
some  other  term  to  use  as  a  designation  for  these  inci- 
dents in  the  Bible  which  we  are  considering,  and  left 
the  word  "  Supernatural "  to  its  etymological  meaning. 
But  that  word  is  now  in  universal  use  as  the  designa- 
tion of  these  incidents,  and  no  other  good  word  seems 
to  suggest  itself  for  the  purpose.  Moreover  we  are  dis- 
posed to  assert  on  philosophical  grounds,  as  we  shall 
see  later,  that  there  are  not,  and  cannot  be,  among 
God's  activities  in  this  world,  any  other  supernatural 
acts  aside  from  acts  of  this  character,  namely,  personal 
acts,  done  with  a  personal  motive  to  specific  individuals 
or  groups.     That  is  the  only  kind  of  supernatural  acts 


34  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

it  seems  logical  to  suppose  that  God  ever  would  do  or 
has  done. 

Keally  then,  in  all  these  Bible  incidents  it  is  the  re- 
striction of  the  act  of  God  to  the  specific  individual 
that  is  the  chief  feature  that  we  shall  find  significant, 
or  need  consider.  The  fact  that  the  act  itself  is  inside 
or  outside  of  the  usual  workings  of  nature  is  a  detail 
that  is  comparatively  incidental  and  unessential  as  far 
as  its  value  in  the  Bible  motive  is  concerned.  Aside 
from  the  fact  that  it  is  calculated  to  impress  on  our 
feelings  that  the  act  is  really  an  intentional  act  of  God 
we  may  comparatively  disregard  that  feature  of  special- 
ness  or  interruption  of  nature,  provided  only  that  we 
can  find  plausible  justification  for  such  acts  occurring 
in  a  universe  ruled  by  a  perfect  God. 


Ill 

THE  POINT  OF  VIEW 

THE  point  of  view  is  very  important.  Any  one 
who  has  tried  to  use  a  kodak  has  had  this  im- 
pressed upon  him.  The  houses,  trees  and 
other  objects  in  the  picture  may  be  practically  the 
same,  but  by  moving  his  camera  to  a  new  location  to 
bring  another  part  of  the  landscape  into  the  foreground 
and  make  another  center  to  his  picture,  the  effect  pro- 
duced is  entirely  that  of  another  scene. 

It  is  very  important  that  we  decide  what  the  central 
purpose  of  our  religion  shall  be  considered  to  be.  Es- 
pecially when  we  are  considering  whether  the  super- 
natural may  properly  have  a  place  in  our  religion  it  is 
very  necessary  that  we  first  accurately  determine  just 
what  the  fundamental  essence  and  purpose  of  our  re- 
ligion is. 

Up  until  a  few  generations  ago  there  was  no  doubt  in 
men's  minds  on  that  point.  Eeligion  was  the  means  of 
Salvation.  That  was  its  central  purpose.  All  men 
were  doomed  to  eternal  punishment  on  account  of  their 
sins,  but  by  means  of  the  offices  of  religion  they  could 
escape  that  punishment  and  have  an  eternal  life  of 
happiness  in  heaven.  That  was  the  purpose  for  which 
Christianity  was  established,  and  the  great  message 
which  it  brought  to  men.  Jesus  Christ  came  from 
heaven  to  earth  expressly  to  die  for  us,  that  we  might 

35 


36  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

be  saved  from  death  and  have  our  sins  forgiven.  Of 
course  there  were  many  other  things  in  the  system, — 
privileges,  duties,  teaching  and  worship, — but  the  one 
central  thing  and  the  essential  purpose  was  Salvation, — 
forgiveness  of  sins  and  the  right  to  enter  heaven. 

Character  and  Service 
Within  the  past  few  generations  there  has  come  to 
be  a  gradual  change  in  the  view-point.  The  old  center 
has  been  shifted  somewhat  into  the  background,  and  a 
new  center  found  about  which  popular  theological 
thought  is  coming  to  arrange  itself.  The  reality  of 
blessedness  and  of  punishments  in  the  future  life  is 
still  affirmed  but  it  is  made  comparatively  a  secondary 
consideration.  The  real  center  which  determines  all 
the  system  is  Character  and  Service.  The  object  of 
religion  is  to  build  and  purify  character  and  to  make 
men  a  more  potent  force  in  the  uplifting  of  society. 

In  this  new  view  the  old  elements  are  still  retained. 
There  is  a  future  life  of  happiness  or  of  misery  before 
men  according  as  they  have  or  have  not  accepted 
Christ.  Christ  came  to  enable  men  to  enter  a  future 
life  of  happiness  in  "  His  Father's  House."  But  that 
happiness  of  the  future  life  will  be  the  result  of  char- 
acter,— will  consist  of  the  purified  and  ennobled  nature 
they  have  attained  in  this  life  by  the  help  of  Christ  and 
His  teaching  and  His  Church.  The  real  center  of  all 
the  endeavour  is  made  to  be  character,  its  great  object 
the  improvement  and  uplifting  of  both  society  and  the 
individual.  Knowledge  of  God,  of  course,  has  an  im- 
portant place  in  this  scheme  of  religion,  for  His  will  is 


THE  POINT  OF  VIEW  37 

to  be  the  law  of  our  lives,  as  His  character  is  to  be  their 
standard. 

In  many  respects  this  new  view  is  felt  to  be  a  vast 
improvement  over  the  old  conception.  It  removes  re- 
ligion entirely  from  the  charge  of  sordid  selfishness. 
It  removes  all  appearance  of  arbitrariness  and  cruelty 
from  God's  judgments  and  punishments.  It  makes  the 
whole  matter  seem  much  more  reasonable  and  practical 
in  this  practical,  utilitarian  age,  and  makes  it  all  an  ap- 
propriate and  integral  part  of  the  evolution  scheme. 

Embarrassing  Eesults  Arise 
But  a  new  difficulty  has  arisen  in  an  unexpected 
quarter.  As  the  religious  movement  has  come  to  seem 
more  and  more  practical  and  reasonable  it  has  some  way 
come  to  seem  less  necessarily  and  distinctively  divine. 
To  continue  the  figure ; — with  the  ethical  motive  brought 
so  prominently  into  the  foreground  the  supernatural 
has  been  crowded  to  the  extreme  background  or  blocked 
out  of  the  picture  entirely. 

In  the  first  place,  as  the  aim  and  meaning  of  religion 
came  to  be  conceived  so  reasonable  and  natural,  the 
scientific  mind  began  to  feel  that  perhaps  religion 
might  not  be  an  antagonistic  thing  apart,  but  might 
after  all  be  found  to  be  a  scientific  fact,  that  might  be 
studied  and  demonstrated  by  the  scientific  method, 
natural  results  traced  to  natural  causes. 

It  was  found  to  have  roots  in  Psychology,  Ethics 
and  Sociology,  and  to  have  developed  in  conformity 
with  the  evolution  laws.  So  much  was  accounted  for 
in  that  manner  that  it  was  assumed  that  in  time  it  could 


38  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL 

all  be  resolved  into  these  purely  natural  elements,  and 
there  was  no  need  for  any  divine  factors  or  supernatural 
elements  at  all.  In  this  way  arose  the  comparative 
study  of  religions,  with  its  natural  corollary  that  Christi- 
anity, like  all  the  other  religions,  was  a  natural  product 
and  composed  of  purely  natural  elements. 

In  the  second  place,  and  more  important,  it  was  felt 
that  the  presence  of  any  supernatural  element  in  relig- 
ion was  really  a  burden,  as  it  was  not  only  unnecessary 
and  uncalled  for,  but  would  be  a  reflection  on  the 
competency  of  the  evolution  process. 

This  has  been  especially  felt  by  those  who  hold  the 
evolution  process  to  be  simply  the  method  of  God's 
working.  Theistic  evolution  has  so  enormously  raised 
and  expanded  our  idea  of  God  that  they  find  it  difficult 
to  conceive  of  His  doing  certain  classes  of  acts  that 
were  formerly  considered  to  be  quite  appropriate,  and 
among  these  they  include  all  the  supernatural  in 
religion. 

The  marvellous  intricacy  and  competence  of  the  evo- 
lution process,  interpreted  as  the  work  of  God,  has 
impressed  us  with  God's  infinite  reasonableness  and 
consistency,  and  made  it  impossible  for  us  to  believe 
His  doing  anything  that  would  imply  vacillation  or 
incompetence.  We  cannot  believe  His  doing  anything 
so  imperfectly  that  it  would  need  to  be  later  supple- 
mented to  enable  it  to  achieve  fully  its  purpose.  Nor 
can  we  believe  that  after  He  had  established  one  process 
or  one  set  of  agencies  quite  competent  to  produce  a 
result  He  would  afterwards  contrive  other  agencies  for 
the  express  purpose  of  producing  that  same  result,  or  of 


THE  POINT  OF  VIEW  39 

producing  it  faster  or  better  than  the  first  process  was 
capable  of  doing. 

We  cannot  conceive,  for  instance,  of  His  instituting 
a  created  system  so  imperfect  that  it  required  repeated 
subsequent  tinkering  to  make  it  attain  the  form  that 
He  desired.  We  cannot  conceive  that  He  made  ma- 
chinery of  progress  so  wonderful  and  perfect  that  it 
produced  a  marvellous  number  and  perfection  of  noble 
results  in  myriad  fields,  but  in  order  to  produce  some 
certain  few  additional  good  results  it  required  some 
wheels  or  appliances  not  originally  provided  for  to  be 
temporarily  inserted. 

This  objection  to  the  supernatural  is  not  merely  the 
hacknied  charge  that  a  miracle  is  a  violation  of  natural 
law.  It  does  not  apply  merely  to  the  individual  cases 
of  specific  miracles.  It  reaches  to  the  whole  fact 
of  revelation  itself,  the  whole  idea  of  "Kevealed 
Keligion,"  of  God  having  in  any  way  contributed 
anything  aside  from  what  is  furnished  naturally  by 
natural  law,  to  the  religious  and  moral  uplift  of  men. 

God  originated  in  one  compactly  concatenated  system 
a  grand  movement  that  has  been  able  spontaneously, 
within  its  own  characteristic  working,  to  bring  about 
myriad  forms  of  progress  and  advancement  in  practi- 
cally every  direction.  It  has  lifted  and  developed  a 
primordial  germ  of  a  single  cell,  through  all  the  stages 
up  and  up  to  the  high  level  of  man,  and  then  endowed 
that  man  with  marvellous  mental  power  and  moral  and 
social  impulses.  But  just  one  little  stage  from  a  lower 
to  a  higher  ethical  level  in  man  could  not  be  brought 
about  spontaneously  by  forces  within  that  system,  and 


40  THE  SUPERS ATUEAL 

so  God  had  to  specially  and  outside  of  the  system  pre- 
pare and  supply  an  appliance  adapted  to  effect  that 
particular  step  of  the  progress, — by  divine  revelation 
and  supernatural  interpositions. 

There  are  many  natural  causes  that  are  operating 
to-day  to  improve  men  ethically  and  lead  them  to 
better  moral  conduct.  These  causes  have  produced 
many  noble  qualities  and  beneficent  advances  in 
countries  where  no  teaching  of  our  revealed  religion 
has  reached.  But  these  already  provided  causes  were 
not  producing  the  desired  results  fast  enough  or  thor- 
oughly enough  and  God  had  to  specially  prepare  and 
introduce  other,  not  originally  provided,  appliances  to 
produce  the  results  more  rapidly  and  more  thoroughly. 
To  say  this  would  be  to  entirely  belittle  the  ability  of 
the  Creator  and  of  His  first  great  act  of  creation. 

Again,  for  the  same  reason  we  cannot  conceive  that 
God  would  give  a  special  divine  revelation  of  knowl- 
edge merely  because  men  needed  that  knowledge  faster 
than  they  were  getting  it,  or  needed  higher  teaching 
than  they  were  attaining  to  unaided.  God  has  in  His 
first  great  creation  system  made  so  much  knowledge 
and  such  high  grades  of  knowledge  spontaneously 
available  to  man,  that  it  is  inconceivable  that  He  could 
not  and  would  not,  if  He  had  so  desired,  have  made  all 
necessary  or  profitable  knowledge  sufficiently  available 
without  the  necessity  for  any  after  additions. 

We  cannot  believe  it  possible,  therefore,  that  God 
should  find  it  necessary  to  make  any  sort  of  special, 
occasional  interposition  or  revelation  merely  to  supply 
some  help,  teaching  or  moral  uplift  that  became  desir- 


THE  POINT  OF  VIEW  41 

able  but  which  men  could  not  otherwise  have  attained. 
If  then  in  the  Bible  we  find  accounts  of  supernatural 
facts  occurring  for  that  purpose,  or  if  we  are  told  that 
the  Bible  is  itself  a  supernatural  revelation  given  for 
that  purpose,  we  find  it  at  least  a  great  strain  on  our 
credulity  to  try  to  believe  those  facts  or  to  accept  the 
Book  on  that  basis,  and  our  esteem  for  the  Bible  is 
thereby  seriously  weakened. 

Eliminating  the  Supernatural 
And  so  the  task  has  been  resolutely  undertaken  of 
eliminating  the  supernatural  from  the  Bible.  It  was 
not  undertaken  in  a  spirit  of  hostility  to  either  Chris- 
tianity or  the  Bible,  but  rather  the  reverse.  It  was 
honestly  felt  that  the  supernatural  elements  were  an 
incumbrance,  that  they  were  a  hindrance  to  the  accept- 
ance of  Christianity  by  the  modern  mind,  that  the 
scientific  mind  felt  compelled  to  reject  any  system  which 
had  in  it  so  much  of  that  which  it  considered  illogical 
and  unbelievable,  and  so,  in  spite  of  its  manifest  supe- 
riority and  power  in  so  many  other  respects,  it  was 
rejecting  the  Christian  religion  on  that  account. 

It  was  felt  that  if  this  objectionable  feature  could 
ouly  be  eliminated,  Christianity,  with  its  enormous 
power  for  good,  would  be  more  widely  accepted  by  the 
modern  mind.  If  some  theory  of  interpretation  could 
be  devised  for  the  Bible,  to  set  aside  all  the  super- 
natural and  miraculous  features  while  retaining  the 
ethical  teaching  and  inspiring  power,  the  usefulness  of 
that  great  historic  classic  might  be  greatly  prolonged. 
Naturally  the  elimination  of  the  supernatural  must 


42  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL 

involve  a  rejection  of  the  Divinity  of  Christ.  This 
position  has  been  consistently  accepted  by  many. 
With  many  others  the  heart  if  not  the  mind  insisted 
that  the  divinity  of  the  Christ  was  too  precious  and  too 
fundamental  to  be  given  up  without  destroying  the 
whole  system.  And  so  they  have  made  a  brave  at- 
tempt to  retain  that  divinity  as  a  fact  while  rejecting 
all  the  appropriate  product  of  it  both  in  the  acts  of 
Christ  and  in  the  propagation  of  His  religion. 

But  by  the  great  body  of  Christians  this  attempt 
has  been  felt  to  have  been  unsuccessful.  The  divine 
eliminated  from  the  character  of  Christ  or  from  His 
work  and  actions,  would  so  mutilate  the  record  as  to 
make  it  meaningless.  Moreover  the  person  and  the 
religion  of  Jesus  have  had  too  great  influence  in  the 
world  to  be  accounted  for  by  any  naturalistic  hypothesis 
thus  far  devised.  The  New  Testament,  with  all  its 
supernatural  features,  is  too  well  authenticated  by 
abundant  historical  evidence  to  be  successfully  set  aside 
or  reconstructed.  The  attitude  of  a  large  part,  if  not 
the  majority,  of  even  critical  thought  at  present  is  that 
the  New  Testament,  with  all  its  difficulties  and  con- 
tradiction of  modern  scientific  tenets  must  still  be  ac- 
cepted as  a  fairly  accurate  witness,  and  things  did  take 
place,  for  the  most  part,  substantially  as  it  records  them. 

But  with  the  Old  Testament  it  is  different.  The 
things  it  recounts  lie  largely  outside  the  field  of 
accurate  historical  examination.  Its  religion  and  teach- 
ing also  are  conceived  to  be  superseded  by  the  higher 
teaching  and  religion  of  the  New  Testament  (in 
spite  of  Jesus'  emphatic  statement  to  the  oontrary), 


THE  POINT  OF  VIEW  43 

(Matt.  5 :  18).  Here,  thus,  there  seemed  to  be  no 
obstacle  to  yielding  a  full  consent  to  the  scientific 
demands.  Perhaps  not  consciously  but  none  the  less 
really  a  large  section  of  recent,  popular  religious 
thought  has  settled  down  to  the  compromise  of  giving 
up  the  Old  Testament  entirely  as  a  book  of  religious 
authority,  and  being  content  with  a  more  or  less  fully 
accredited  New  Testament.  And  even  in  that  New 
Testament,  the  supernatural  features  which  were  once 
esteemed  the  things  of  chief  importance  are  now  felt 
to  be  almost  entirely  without  value  if  not  indeed  a 
positive  burden. 

Such  then  is  the  situation  to-day,  and  the  cause  that 
has  brought  it  about.  Such  is  the  question  we  are  now 
confronting.  Are  we  willing  to  contentedly  acquiesce 
in  this  state  as  final,  or  do  we  still  retain  the  hope  that 
it  may  be  only  a  temporary  wave,  and  the  old  faith 
may  again  be  found  possible  ?  May  we  still  hope  that 
something  will  yet  be  found  that  will  justify  the  super- 
natural, and  the  Bible  be  again  restored  to  its  old  place, 
our  New  Testament  and  divine  Christ  be  again  fear- 
lessly believed  without  any  apologies  to  scientific 
thought,  and  our  Old  Testament  too  be  found  a  rich 
treasure  of  divine  inspiration  and  life, — the  whole  Book 
alike  be  considered  worthy  the  old  title  of  "  A  Eevela- 
tion  "  and  "  The  Word  of  God  "  ? 

Legitimate  Kesults  of  the  Diffekent 
View-Points 
This  process  has  all  been  perfectly  logical  and  the 
respective  conclusions  quite  legitimate.     Both  the  old 


44  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

view  and  the  new  were  quite  consistent  and  reasonable 
from  their  respective  view-points.  God  is  reasonable 
and  consistent,  and  will  never  start  a  new  process  to 
accomplish  something  that  He  has  already  established 
another  process  to  effect.  Still,  of  course,  if  He  has 
two  distinct  enterprises  with  different  purposes  He 
may  be  expected  to  freely  employ  in  the  second  enter- 
prise other  agencies  than  those  employed  in  the  first, 
and  so  we  might  freely  have  these  events  which  we 
call  supernatural. 

The  old  view  considered  that  God  did  have  such  a 
second  and  entirely  distinct  enterprise,  which  had  no 
connection  with  what  we  call  Nature.  It  considered 
that  what  we  call  Eeligion  or  "  Grace  "  was  a  matter 
that  lay  entirely  outside  the  domain  of  nature.  Nature 
has  to  do  with  this  world.  Eeligion  has  to  do  or  is  re- 
lated entirely  with  heaven,  where  the  conditions  and 
laws  of  this  world  do  not  apply. 

Eeligion  was  considered  as  an  enterprise  wherein 
God  from  without  undertook  to  deliver  man  out  of  a 
situation  of  ruin  into  which  he  had  gotten  himself  in 
this  world,  and  to  prepare  him  for  entering  a  new  life 
in  an  entirely  new  world  separate  and  distinct  from 
this.  Of  course  from  that  view-point  there  would  not 
be  any  impropriety  in  God  doing  whatever  He  pleased 
to  accomplish  that  end,  and  it  could  be  no  reflection  on 
the  adequacy  of  the  work  which  He  had  done  in  nature 
since  that  was  a  distinct  enterprise  entirely. 

From  that  point  of  view  any  amount  of  miracles  and 
special  interpositions  would  be  perfectly  reasonable. 
Indeed  we  would  surely  expect  that  there  would  be 


THE  POINT  OF  VIEW  45 

some  activities  in  that  enterprise  that  would  be  differ- 
ent from  those  that  obtain  in  ordinary  nature.  So  the 
old  belief  in  the  supernatural  was  entirely  consistent 
from  its  view-point. 

But  from  the  modern  view-point  religion  is  not  thus 
something  entirely  outside  of  the  domain  of  nature. 
It  has  come  to  seem  unreasonable  to  modern  thought 
that  God  should  have  two  such  enterprises  entirely 
separate  and  distinct,  both  concerned  with  men. 
Moreover  it  makes  religion  itself  seem  to  be  only  a 
kind  of  "  Repair  Shop,"  a  confession  of  failure  in  the 
first  enterprise  that  had  to  be  remedied  by  bringing  in 
an  entirely  new  and  separate  one.  It  has  come  to 
seem  imperative  that  we  should  make  religion  an 
integral  part  and  culmination  of  the  one  great  enter- 
prise that  has  been  in  progress  all  through  the  ages, 
and  which  we  call  Nature. 

And  so  the  new  point  of  view  conceives,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  main  purpose  of  religion  to  be  character. 
There  is  individual  character  which  consists  of  right- 
eousness and  goodness  in  the  individual,  and  collective 
character  which  results  from  the  work  of  religious  men 
righting  the  wrongs  and  uplifting  the  condition  of 
society.  All  this  attempted  under  the  help  and  direc- 
tion of  God  is  what  constitutes  that  noble  thing  which 
we  call  religion. 

This  certainly  is  an  integral  part  of  the  evolu- 
tion system.  While  it  implies  incompleteness  in  the 
present  state  of  affairs,  and  that  "Perishing  of 
the  Unfit"  which  characterizes  all  the  evolution  pro- 
gram, yet  it  does  not  make  any  implication  of  fail- 


46  THE  SUPEHNATUKAL 

ure  or  of  new  interpositions  to  remedy  an  unsuccessful 
work. 

Eeligion  is  thus  in  the  fullest  degree  a  part  of  the 
evolution  process,  for  it  is  but  carrying  on  to  comple- 
tion that  which  it  is  the  work  of  the  whole  process  to 
effect.  That  whole  process  is  a  process  of  elevating 
and  producing  things  of  higher  and  higher  moral 
worth.  This  is  but  the  highest  and  noblest  part  of 
that  one  great  enterprise  of  character  building. 

Here  is  a  long  process  by  which  God  is  developing 
that  noble  thing— Christian  Character.  The  natural 
agencies  which  He  made  provision  for  in  the  one  great 
original  act  of  creation  were  sufficient  to  almost  ac- 
complish the  result.  They  were  able  to  take  the 
Amoeba  of  one  cell  and  elevate  it  on  up  and  up  to  the 
level  of  man,  and  still  on  up  to  the  moral  level  of  a 
Socrates  or  a  Confucius,  but  to  go  one  step  farther  and 
elevate  that  Socrates  or  Confucius  up  to  the  moral 
level  of  the  average  Christian  man  was  beyond  the 
power  of  those  provided  agencies  and  necessitated  this 
supplemental  and  supernatural  divine  activity. 

Suppose  a  man  was  clever  enough  to  contrive  a 
machine  to  manufacture  screws.  The  machine  would 
draw  out  the  steel  wire,  cut  it  to  the  proper  length, 
taper  one  end  to  a  point,  cut  the  thread,  roughly  form 
up  the  head  and  cut  a  slit  in  it,  but  at  that  stage  it 
could  do  no  more,  and  he  would  have  to  take  the  screw 
out  of  the  machine  and  smooth  and  polish  up  the  head 
by  hand.  We  would  say  that  an  inventor  who  could 
go  so  far  could  probably  go  just  a  little  farther,  and 
perfect  his  machine  so  it  would  finish  the  whole  proc- 


THE  POINT  OF  VIEW  47 

ess.  Certainly  we  would  say  that  his  invention,  won- 
derful as  it  was,  still  was  short  of  perfection  if  it  could 
not  supply  that  last  little  detail  also. 

Just  that  is  what  we  are  asked  to  believe  concerning 
God's  work,  if  the  essential  object  of  religion  is  to  im- 
prove character,  and  if  it  required  this  expenditure  of 
special  divine  activity  and  special  divine  teaching  in 
order  to  produce  this  final  detail  of  Christian  character. 
We  cannot  wonder  at  thoughtful  men  wishing  that  the 
supernatural  could  be  entirely  eliminated  from  our 
Bible  and  from  our  Christian  system. 

Is  This  the  True  Meaning  of  Beligion  ? 

But  what  if  that  is  not  after  all  the  true  meaning 
and  purpose  of  religion  ?  There  is  a  story  that  a  cer- 
tain Chinese  statesman  was  once  watching  some  college 
youths  playing  a  game  of  lawn  tennis.  As  he  watched 
them  running  and  straining  to  knock  the  little  ball 
backward  and  forward  over  the  net  he  remarked  to 
his  companion : 

"  It  is  strange,  when  the  Americans  are  so  clever  at 
invention,  that  they  have  not  been  able  to  devise  a  ma- 
chine to  perform  that  operation  for  them." 

Well,  though  it  would  have  required  a  rather  large 
and  intricate  machine,  yet  if  the  only  purpose  of  it  all 
was  to  secure  that  a  certain  rubber  sphere  should  be 
propelled  a  certain  number  of  times  over  a  net,  very 
probably  American  invention  would  not  have  found  it 
an  impossible  feat  to  construct  a  machine  that  would 
perform  that  operation.  And  if  the  forming  of  high 
and  pure  character  was  the  only  purpose,  or  the  con- 


48  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL 

trolling  purpose  God  had  in  mind  in  religion,  doubtless 
He  would  have  been  quite  able  to  have  arranged  for 
the  machinery  of  the  evolution  process  to  produce  that 
work  adequately,  without  the  supplement  of  these  su- 
pernatural accessories. 

It  is  doubtless  rather  venturesome  to  dare  to  suggest 
that  character  and  service  are  not  the  chief  objects  of 
religion  and  the  highest  purpose  in  life.  It  is  so  re- 
cently that  we  have  left  the  lower  conception  that  re- 
ligion is  merely  a  means  of  escaping  hell  and  attaining 
heaven,  that  the  early  exhilaration  of  the  higher  mo- 
tive is  still  upon  us.  The  conception  of  character  build- 
ing and  social  service  as  the  supreme  motive  has  thrilled 
and  captivated  us.  It  seems  such  a  high,  unselfish  and 
worthy  motive  in  every  way.  And  certainly  it  is  a 
noble  conception.  Even  if  some  other  object  may 
prove  itself  to  be  the  higher  and  ultimate  object  of  re- 
ligion, we  may  be  sure  it  will  not  discredit  the  impor- 
tance of  character.  Though  something  else  may  be 
brought  to  occupy  the  foreground  of  the  picture  we 
may  be  sure  that  character  and  service  will  still  be  in 
the  view  and  in  a  very  prominent  position. 

But  we  must  venture  to  claim  that  the  development 
of  character  is  not  the  chief  and  ultimate  object  of  our 
Christian  religion.  Oar  Christian  religion  is  irrevo- 
cably committed  to  the  supernatural,  and  a  supernatural 
propaganda,  as  we  have  seen,  could  not  take  that  for 
its  fundamental  purpose  without  discrediting  the  com- 
petence of  God's  work  in  creation. 

Moreover  the  Bible  itself  does  not  represent  that  to 
be  the  essence  of  religion.     True,  the  word  Eeligion 


THE  POINT  OF  VIEW  49 

has  various  meanings  and  is  sometimes  used  in  that 
sense,  or  the  name  religion  is  given  to  that  one  of  its 
products  (cf.  James  1 :  27).  For  it  is  true  that  our 
Christian  religion  has  more  influence  to  produce  noble 
character  and  philanthropic  service  than  any  other 
known  agency,  and  it  was  intended  that  it  should  do 
so.  It  is  perfectly  right  that  we  should  use  it  as  an 
effective  instrument  to  gain  a  higher  manhood  and 
make  the  world  better.  But  that  does  not  prove  that 
that  is  its  central  and  ultimate  purpose.  Every  effect 
of  an  act  is  not  necessarily  to  be  counted  as  the  formal 
purpose  for  which  it  was  performed. 

What  then  is  the  fundamental  meaning  of  our  Chris- 
tian religion  ?  What  purpose  is  there  that  we  may  set 
down  as  its  real,  formal  object,  a  purpose  which  is  of 
such  a  nature  as  to  justify  supernatural  events  taking 
place  in  order  to  secure  its  accomplishment  ? 

Jesus  Himself  has  given  us  a  definition.  It  was  just 
before  the  end,  at  the  Last  Supper.  He  had  been  hav- 
ing that  farewell  talk  with  His  disciples,  and  turns  for 
a  few  moments  of  communion  with  the  Father  who 
had  sent  Him.  In  the  opening  words  of  that  prayer 
(John  17 : 1-3)  He  states  that  His  great  purpose  in 
coming  into  the  world  wsls  to  give  Eternal  Life  to  men. 
And  then  He  defines  TOat  that  Eternal  Life  is  :  "  This 
is  Eternal  Life,  that  they  should  know  thee  the  only 
true  God,  and  him  whom  thou  didst  send,  even  Jesus 
Christ." 

The  great  mission  which  Jesus  Christ  came  into  the 
world  to  accomplish  was  to  enable  men  to  know  God. 
That  to  Him  was  the  supreme  thing,  that  the  essence 


50  THE  STJPEBNATUBAL 

of  religion.  To  know  a  person  is  to  be  on  terms  of  ac- 
quaintance with  him.  It  means  social  intimacy,  friend- 
ship and  personal  fellowship.  Must  we  not  then  put 
that  down  as  the  meaning  and  ultimate  purpose  of  re- 
ligion, namely,  to  come  into  a  condition  of  fellowship 
with  God  ? 

Fellowship  With  God 

We  will  venture  to  define,  then,  that  the  supreme 
purpose  and  fundamental  meaning  of  our  religion  is 
this  which  Jesus  made  possible  by  His  coming,  namely, 
fellowship  with  God.  It  is  not  merely  a  cold,  imper- 
sonal scheme  for  developing  character, — a  sort  of  final 
finishing  and  polishing  department  in  the  great  evolu- 
tion factory.  Much  less  is  it  merely  a  device  to  escape 
hell  and  get  into  heaven, — a  sort  of  great  Kescue 
Home  or  Eepair  Shop.  There  may  be  need  enough 
for  all  these  in  this  complex,  battle-scarred  old  world 
of  ours.  But  any  object  of  sufficient  moment  to  war- 
rant the  incarnation  of  the  Supreme  Being  Himself  and 
His  visible  residence  for  a  while  among  created  men, 
must  certainly  be  something  on  a  higher  level  than  any 
of  these. 

Beligion  is  fellowship  with  God.  This  is  a  definition 
that  puts  it  in  the  very  highest  category  possible.  It 
makes  it  a  thing  quite  worth}?-  of  having  the  greatest 
acts  done  on  its  account.  The  reason,  perhaps,  why  it 
does  not  usually  impress  us  more  is  because  it  has  be- 
come so  familiar.  Our  very  idea  of  God  has  come  to 
be  built  around  it.  God's  efforts  in  that  direction  have 
succeeded  so  well  that  we  in  modern  times  have  thor- 


THE  POINT  OF  VIEW  ,  51 

oughly  gained  this  feeling  of  His  approachableness. 
We  have  become  impressed  with  His  humanness, — as 
indeed  He  intended  we  should  be, — but  at  the  expense 
of  His  Infinite  Majesty. 

But  if  we  will  just  try  to  think  what  is  implied  in 
the  thought  of  friendship,  intercourse  and  association 
with  such  a  being  as  we  have  now  come  to  know  the 
Creator  God  is,  what  vistas  of  future  promise  it  opens 
up  as  well  as  what  ennobling  and  purifying  of  present 
life  it  entails,  we  will  realize  that  it  is  truly  the  highest 
definition  we  could  give,  that  it  presents  a  motive  well 
worthy  of  all  that  religion  has  claimed  to  do  and  be  in 
the  world,  and  as  we  shall  see  later,  a  motive  for  which 
it  would  be  plausible  to  expect  God  to  do  some  things 
that  He  had  not  done  in  carrying  out  the  processes  of 
ordinary  nature. 

We  need  hardly  add  that  accepting  this  view  means 
no  possible  slacking  of  zeal  for  Social  Service,  but  on 
the  contrary  must  result  in  the  greatest  help  and  stimu- 
lus for  such  service ;  as  we  shall  more  fully  see  later. 

Historical  Meaning  of  the  Term 
That  this  is  really  the  true  conception  of  religion  will 
be  readily  apparent.  Some  form  of  worship  or  relation 
to  some  kind  of  gods  has  always  been  the  kind  of  cult 
to  which  the  name  Eeligion  has  normally  been  applied. 
It  is  only  in  very  recent  years,  and  under  the  pressure 
of  materialistic  or  naturalistic  theories  that  the  attempt 
has  been  made  to  give  anything  else  except  relations 
with  God  or  the  gods  the  name  of  religion. 
When  we  consider  the  subject  of  religion  as  a  world 


52  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

phenomenon  and  as  one  of  the  elements  of  the  world's 
life,  some  form  of  worship  or  some  attitude  towards  some 
kind  of  gods  or  superior  beings  is  always  considered  the 
essential  feature.  That  has  practically  been  the  ac- 
cepted definition  of  religion.  If  it  could  be  shown  that 
any  given  tribe  made  no  attempt  towards  any  worship 
or  service  of  any  kind  towards  any  superior  spirits  or 
beings  it  would  be  thereby  counted  that  they  had  no 
religion. 

Ethics  and  religion  are  two  distinct  movements,  and 
have  had  entirely  distinct  and  separate  genesis.  The 
beginning  of  ethical  discipline  must  have  very  far  ante- 
dated the  rise  of  religion,  for  we  see  the  rudiments  of 
it  already  in  some  of  the  higher  animals.  Keligion  is 
not  an  outgrowth  or  product  of  this  ethical  discipline. 
It  is  something  separate  entirely,  and  with  a  different 
origin.  And  it  is  not  till  we  reach  a  comparatively 
late  and  high  form  of  religion  that  any  considerable 
amalgamation  of  ethics  and  religion  is  attempted  and 
the  authority  of  the  gods  put  forth  as  the  sanction  for 
moral  conduct. 

Historically  considered,  then,  and  as  a  phenomenon 
of  world  life,  what  has  been  called  religion  has  always 
been  some  sort  of  attitude  towards  gods  or  supernatural 
beings.  It  is  the  relation  with  divine  or  supernatural 
beings  that  constitutes  it  religion. 

The  Meaning  of  the  Bible  Keligion 
If  this  is  the  meaning  of  the  term  when  applied  to 
the  ethnic  religions,  much  more  is  it  so  when  applied  to 
Christianity  and  the  Bible  religion.     Though  ethics  is 


THE  POINT  OF  VIEW  53 

made  more  prominent  there,  and  the  ethical  standards 
put  much  higher  than  in  any  of  the  ethnic  religions, 
yet  the  relation  with  God  is  also  made  very  much 
more  intimate  and  absolute.  It  is  put,  also,  upon  a 
very  much  more  sympathetic  and  familiar  footing.  To 
those  complying  with  the  conditions  that  relation  is 
always  made  one  of  favour  and  protection,  of  confiding 
and  real  intimate  fellowship.  So  intimate  and  sympa- 
thetic is  it  that  the  relation  of  children  to  a  father  is 
the  term  by  which  it  is  typically  expressed. 

Certainly  since  the  coming  of  Christ  the  fundamental 
essence  of  the  Christian  religion  has  been  communion 
and  fellowship  with  God.  That  is  the  religion  of  the 
New  Testament  and  the  religion  which  Christ  both 
taught  and  practiced.  And  as  we  shall  see  later,  it  is 
equally  so  of  the  Old  Testament  as  well. 

The  evidence  that  this  is  so  lies  not  so  much  in  spe- 
cific proof  texts,  though  there  are  plenty  of  them  (John 
6 :  29 ;  15  :  15  ;  1  Cor.  1 :  9 ;  1  John  1 :  3,  etc.,  etc.),  as  in 
the  whole  tenor  of  the  teaching  and  the  very  nature  of 
the  system  itself. 

From  first  to  last  it  is  a  personal  relation  to  God  that 
is  urged  and  invited.  Salvation  is  represented  as  recon- 
ciliation to  God,  bringing  the  prodigal  back  again  to 
his  father's  house.  The  Christian  life  is  always  repre- 
sented as  serving  God,  walking  with  God,  enjoying  the 
favour  and  presence  of  God.  Even  sin  is  often  rated 
not  from  its  ethical  badness  nor  its  desert  of  punish- 
ment but  from  the  fact  that  it  separates  us  from  God. 
Man's  better  character  and  conduct  are  represented  as 
the  result  of  a  close  relation  with  God  rather  than  the 


54  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

relation  with  God  a  result  of  the  better  conduct  and 
character. 

The  purpose  of  the  Bible  is  not  theoretical  but  prac- 
tical, and  as  the  consequences  of  that  new  relation  are 
so  enormous  to  us,  delivering  us  from  eternal  ruin  and 
bringing  to  us  an  eternity  of  happiness,  it  is  not  strange 
that  the  consideration  of  those  results  bulks  large  in 
the  teaching.  It  is  not  strange  that  Paul,  writing  to 
the  Komans,  a  people  where  the  authority  of  law  was 
so  prominently  in  the  foreground,  should  make  much 
of  the  point  of  "  Justification  by  Faith."  And  yet, 
writing  to  other  communities  of  a  more  contemplative 
turn  he  merely  goes  a  little  farther  and  shows  that 
even  this  justification  is  for  the  purpose  of  bringing 
us  back  to  God  that  in  the  ages  to  come  He  might 
lavish  upon  us  the  wealth  of  His  loving  fellowship 
(Eph.  2 : 7).  Even  to  the  Romans  the  justification  is 
not  an  end  but  a  means  to  a  closer  relation  with  God 
(Rom.  5 : 1). 

The  one  thing  which  the  New  Testament  always 
lays  stress  upon  as  the  condition  of  salvation  and  basis 
of  religious  life  is  Faith,  and  this  faith  is  practically 
almost  another  name  for  fellowship.  It  is  true  that 
this  faith  was  once  supposed  to  be  merely  the  belief  of 
various  doctrines,  and  it  seems  to  be  so  defined  in  some 
of  the  ancient  creeds.  But  we  now  recognize  that  the 
"  Faith  "  intended  is  something  far  more  than  that.  It 
is  not  mere  intellectual  belief  but  a  personal  connection 
between  the  soul  and  God.  It  is  a  matter  of  trust  and 
felt  personal  relation  with  a  sympathetic  God.  Such 
faith  is  really  one  element  of  fellowship  and  certainly 


THE  POINT  OF  VIEW  55 

implies  the  existence  of  this  which  we  have  called 
"  Fellowship  with  God."  It  is  the  attitude  of  the  soul 
that  looks  for  and  desires  fellowship,  and  the  attitude 
that  makes  fellowship  possible. 

The  most  conclusive  consideration  of  all  is  Prayer. 
Prayer  is  an  essential  and  fundamental  feature  in  all 
religions  everywhere,  and  certainly  it  has  always  been 
considered  so  in  the  Christian  religion.  The  very  es- 
sence of  Christian  prayer  is  communion  and  fellowship 
with  God.  We  might  almost  say  prayer  is  fellowship 
and  that  only,  for  really  the  things  granted  in  answer 
to  prayer  are  not  the  purpose  for  which  prayer  was  in- 
stituted. The  purpose  for  which  prayer  was  designed 
by  God  was  the  fellowship  of  the  prayer  itself,  and  that 
is  the  main  object.  The  things  granted  are  merely  a 
means  to  induce  men  to  come  and  engage  in  the  fellow- 
ship. Certainly  prayer  is  fellowship,  and  prayer  is  the 
very  essence  of  our  religion. 

Even  heaven,  the  goal  of  religious  hope,  is  presented 
to  us  as  a  matter  of  fellowship  with  God  (John  14  :  3 ; 
Phil.  1 :  23,  etc.).  True,  our  materialistic  imaginations 
have  filled  in  the  details  with  all  kinds  of  materialistic 
and  sensuous  apparatus  of  pleasure,  but  the  actual  teach- 
ing of  the  Bible  presents  it  chiefly  as  going  to  be  with 
God  in  the  glory  of  His  presence, — as  "  Being  at  home 
with  the  Lord  "  (2  Cor.  5  :  8). 

The  whole  practice  of  the  Christian  life,  the  condition 
of  entrance  to  it  and  the  heaven  to  which  it  looks  for- 
ward all  consist  essentially  of  some  phase  of  fellowship 
with  God.  If  we  wish  to  define  the  place  of  our 
religion  among  the  facts  and  forces  of  the  world  we  are 


56  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

right  in  taking  that  as  the  term  that  really  defines  it. 
That  is  its  value,  and  that  is  the  place  we  must  assign 
it  in  the  great  scheme  of  God's  unfolding  evolution. 
Christianity  is  "  Fellowship  with  God." 

It  may  be  asked :  What  is  new  in  that  ?  Christians 
have  always  recognized  that  they  have  fellowship  with 
God,  and  that  it  is  a  most  blessed  privilege.  With 
many  of  the  mystics  it  has  bulked  large,  filling  all  the 
horizon  of  their  deepest  experiences.  Even  those  who 
make  most  of  social  service  and  development  of  char- 
acter do  not  necessarily  lose  sight  of  this  other  fact  of 
fellowship  with  God,  and  may  consider  it  a  very  im- 
portant source  of  strength  and  comfort. 

Precisely  so.  Our  hearts  have  often  judged  more 
truly  than  our  intellects.  It  is  true  we  have  always 
recognized  that  it  is  a  factor,  but  we  have  not  always 
put  it  in  its  proper  place  as  the  very  center  of  the 
picture.  It  is  not  a  question  of  the  greatness  of  the 
benefit  to  us,  nor  a  question  of  what  we  should  spend 
most  time  and  zeal  upon,  but  a  question  of  what  is 
really  the  central  and  governing  fact.  The  mountain 
may  bulk  larger  in  a  picture  than  the  deer  in  the  fore- 
ground, nevertheless  the  picture  is  a  picture  of  a  deer 
and  not  a  picture  of  the  mountain,  and  is  to  be  so 
judged. 

Very  possibly  it  is  not  the  contemplation  of  this 
fellowship,  but  works  of  active  social  service  and  self- 
culture  that  ought  to  occupy  the  larger  part  of  our 
time  and  interest.  It  is  true  that  the  deliverance  from 
ruin  and  promise  of  eternal  happiness  do  naturally 
make  the  stronger  pull  upon  our  feelings  and  will 


THE  POINT  OF  VIEW  57 

furnish  the  stronger  motive  to  induce  men  to  enter  the 
religious  life.  They  will,  and  ought  to  be,  for  a  long 
while  yet,  perhaps,  the  main  staple  of  evangelistic 
preaching.  And  yet  not  these  but  fellowship  with  God 
is  the  central  fact,  the  ultimate  purpose  and  what  we 
must  define  the  real  essence  of  religion  to  be. 

Now  if  the  essence  of  religion  is  fellowship  with 
God  we  shall  see  as  we  proceed  that  not  only  would  it 
not  be  a  violation  of  nature  and  a  burden  to  the  cause 
of  Christianity  for  such  things  as  these  supernatural 
incidents  in  the  Bible  to  occur,  but  they  are  really 
normal  and  necessary.  Indeed  religion  could  not  arise 
and  exist  without  the  occurrence  or  at  least  the  belief 
of  some  such  acts. 


IV 
SOCIAL  SEKVICE 

IT  will  not  be  surprising  if  some  are  not  disposed  to 
greet  very  enthusiastically  the  demand  that  we 
must  substitute  "Fellowship  with  God"  as  the 
essential  aim  of  religion  in  place  of  the  cultivation  of 
Character  and  Social  Service.  What !  Are  we  to  go 
back  to  the  middle  age  conception !  Are  we  to  en- 
courage people  to  live  in  cells  and  cloisters  and  spend 
their  time  in  rapt  meditation, — and  leave  the  world  to 
groan  and  rot ! 

Not  at  all.  These  great  philanthropic  and  sociological 
enterprises  are  the  glory  of  our  awakened  Christian 
life.  They  are  themselves  part  of  the  fellowship 
(Matt.  25  :  40  ff.).  They  are  preeminently  the  mission, 
as  they  should  be  the  passion,  of  every  Christian  man. 
They  may  well  be  said  to  gauge  the  genuineness  of  any 
man's  religion  in  these  days. 

But  that  does  not  mean  that  religion  itself  may  not 
contain  something  else  than  these,  noble  as  they  are. 
Even  admitting  that  they  ought  to  be  the  supreme 
absorbing  employment  of  every  friend  of  God,  that 
does  not  prove  that  the  friendship  itself,  and  the  per- 
sonal fellowship  and  communion,  are  not  something  to 
be  considered  and  are  not  something  higher  and  nobler 
even  than  this  Service  and  this  Character. 

58 


SOCIAL  SEEYICE  59 

Social  Service  Our  Chief  Work  but  Fellow- 
ship a  Higher  Thing 

Unquestionably  these  great  civic,  ethic  and  sociolog- 
ical movements  mark  the  highest  standard  to  which 
Christian  living  has  yet  attained.  The  more  religious 
a  man  is  to-day  the  more  completely  he  will  absorb  his 
life  and  energies  in  forwarding  these  noble  ends,  and  the 
more  completely  he  ought  to  do  so.  But  that  does  not 
prove  that  there  may  not  be  something  else  intrinsically 
higher  than  all  these,  and  that  higher  something  the 
thing  to  which  we  ought  properly  to  give  the  name 
Keligion. 

If  a  man  is  a  grocery  man  or  in  some  other  business 
he  ought  to  give  his  most  earnest  thought  and  energy 
to  that  business.  The  one  great  purpose  and  effort  of 
his  life  will  be  to  sell  as  many  groceries  as  possible 
and  do  a  large  and  successful  business.  During  the 
larger  part  of  his  waking  hours  his  thoughts  and  efforts 
will  be  strenuously  engaged  in  that  one  enterprise. 
But  that  does  not  say  that  he  does  not  prize  his  home 
with  its  personal  fellowship  with  wife  and  children, 
and  that  he  may  not  consider  that  personal  relationship 
and  fellowship  a  thing  far  higher  than  his  selling 
groceries. 

The  fellowship  does  not  interfere  with  his  selling 
groceries.  It  does  not  even  compete  with  it.  The 
more  he  loves  his  wife  and  children,  and  the  more  he 
prizes  their  fellowship,  the  more  he  will  strive  to  make 
his  business  successful.  That  home  fellowship  is  some- 
thing different  from  and  on  a  higher  plane  entirely  than 
the  selling  groceries. 


60  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL 

Just  so,  our  fellowship  with  God  is  a  something  on  a 
higher  plane  than  even  our  caring  for  the  sick  and 
revising  factory  laws.  It  is  not  to  be  questioned  which 
should  be  given  more  prominence  or  more  time,  any- 
more than  in  the  other  case  the  man  questions  to  which 
he  shall  give  the  more  prominence  or  more  time,  selling 
groceries  or  loving  his  family.  The  two  are  not  com- 
petitors in  any  sense.  So  these  two  also  are  not  con- 
petitors  whose  relative  importance  is  to  be  calculated 
and  balanced.  The  love  and  fellowship  with  God  is  a 
something  on  a  higher  plane  and  in  a  separate  category 
entirely. 

Fellowship  Stimulates  Service,  and  Yet  That 
is  Not  Its  Main  Purpose 

We  may  say  truly  that  the  more  a  man  loves  and 
has  fellowship  with  God  the  more  earnestly  he  will 
devote  his  life  to  these  noble  practical  aims,  just  as  we 
have  said  that  the  more  a  man  loves  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren the  more  he  will  feel  impelled  to  try  to  be  success- 
ful in  business.  No  man  can  say  that  urging  an  increased 
spirit  of  fellowship  and  communion  with  God  is  likely 
to  draw  off  interest  from  the  sociological  and  ethical 
work.  On  the  contrary,  there  is  nothing  that  has  so 
much  influence  in  rousing  and  intensifying  passion  for 
that  work  as  a  real  fellowship  with  God.  If  one  is 
anxious  to  see  this  sociological  work  carried  on  vigor- 
ously there  is  nothing  else  that  will  so  much  forward  it 
as  to  have  men  come  into  warm  and  constant  personal 
fellowship  with  God. 

And  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  we  must  repudiate 


SOCIAL  SERVICE  61 

strongly  the  idea  that  this  fellowship  with  God  is 
primarily  for  the  sake  of  the  social  service,  that  it  is  to 
be  considered  but  a  means  to  produce  that  service,  that 
that  is  its  main  use  and  it  is  to  be  esteemed  and  encour- 
aged primarily  for  that  reason.  He  would  not  have  a 
very  high  idea  of  life  who  would  say  that  since  the 
more  a  man  loves  his  wife  and  children  the  more  ear- 
nestly he  will  try  to  be  successful  in  his  grocery  busi- 
ness, therefore  family  affection  ought  to  be  urged  and 
encouraged  for  the  sake  of  the  grocery  trade. 

Sooial  Seevice  is  Fellowship,  and  Yet  Fel- 
lowship Tkanscejstds  It 

We  have  not,  however,  given  an  entirely  fair  illus- 
tration. For  this  service  of  morals  and  sociology  is  not 
an  enterprise  separate  and  apart.  It  is  fellowship.  It 
is  really  itself  a  high  form  of  fellowship,  for  it  is  work- 
ing side  by  side  with  God  in  the  same  work  with  Him. 
This  social  work  is  God's  own  great  enterprise,  and  the 
very  matter  of  working  at  it  is  engaging  with  Him  in 
the  same  work  in  which  He  is  engaged,  and  that  is 
fellowship.  This  sociological  work  itself  can  really  all 
be  included  under  the  one  term  as  part  of  that  great 
something  which  we  call  fellowship  with  God. 

And  still,  though  social  service  may  be  truly  fellow- 
ship with  God  yet  we  must  not  forget  that  fellowship 
far  transcends  this  service.  The  service  is  only  one 
part  or  one  feature  of  the  fellowship. 

A  man  comes  home  and  helps  his  wife  beat  the  car- 
pets and  clean  the  windows,  and  that  very  work  is  a 
form  of  fellowship  with  her.    But  home  fellowship  and 


62  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

family  life  is  something  more  than  house-cleaning.  It 
is  a  higher  concept  entirely,  however  necessary  the 
house-cleaning  may  be. 

Moreover,  houses  were  not  made  only  for  cleaning. 
Though  some  men  may  be  inclined  to  think  otherwise 
when  the  spring  house-cleaning  drags  on  day  after 
day,  yet  it  is  normally  to  be  expected  that  some  time 
it  will  be  finished,  and  only  the  daily  dusting  and 
tidying  will  be  sufficient  for  the  needs  of  comfortable 
living. 

So  this  moral  renovating  and  cleaning  of  the  house 
social  and  civic,  though  it  does  seem  to  be  a  long  and 
tedious  process,  yet  we  cannot  believe  to  be  necessarily 
a  permanent  part  of  the  world's  program  and  always 
a  major  feature  of  the  meaning  of  right  life.  As  truly 
as  that  work  is  efficiently  done  it  must  more  and  more 
tend  to  become  unnecessary.  There  ought  to  come  a 
time  when  it  will  no  longer  be  a  main  feature  of  human 
duty.     The  house  will  be  cleaned. 

That  happy  time  may  not  be  for  a  hundred  years 
yet,  or  even  for  many  hundred  years.  ■  Yet  even  so, 
who  can  say  that  in  the  whole  long  range  of  coming 
human  history  our  present  age,  when  social  service  is 
the  most  pressing  duty,  may  not  be  comparatively  but 
like  one  short  house-cleaning  week.  In  the  Bible 
teaching  there  are  passages  that  are  usually  interpreted 
to  indicate  that  there  is  such  a  prospect  in  the  future, 
extending  out  to  a  far  horizon,  during  which  the  world 
is  to  be  a  scene  of  happy  "  Millennial  "  purity.  Will 
there  be  nothing  to  constitute  religion  then  because 
there  is  no  more  house-cleaning  to  be  done  ? 


SOCIAL  SEEVICE  63 

Fellowship  Demands  Service,  But  it  is  Service 
for  Fellowship's  Sake 

Now,  in  this  house-cleaning  age,  we  must  recognize 
that  house-cleaning  is  the  one  supremely  important 
thing  to  be  done.  Let  us  not  slacken  our  efforts  or 
interest  in  any  respect,  but  rather  increase  them.  Nor 
must  it  be  any  disparagement  of  this  civic  and  socio- 
logical work  to  say  that  there  is  another  category  on  a 
distinctly  higher  plane,  and  the  real  essence  of  religion 
is  this  fellowship  with  God.  To  exalt  that  fellowship 
is  no  incentive  or  excuse  to  neglect  the  social  service, 
but  quite  the  reverse.  For  under  present  circum- 
stances fellowship  with  God  can  only  be  counted  to 
subsist  where  there  is  an  interest  in  that  sociological 
work,  for  there  is  where  God  and  His  interest  are  at 
present.  A  man  can  hardly  claim  to  be  on  terms  of 
very  devoted  love  and  fellowship  with  his  wife  if  he 
sits  idly  by  reading  poetry  while  his  wife  has  her 
sleeves  rolled  up  and  is  scrubbing,  lifting  and  cleaning. 
Now  is  a  time  when  our  fellowship  with  God  must 
show  itself  chiefly  in  our  passion  for  this  work  in  which 
He  is  interested  and  engaged. 

But  even  so,  we  must  not  lose  sight  of  the  fea- 
ture of  fellowship  in  that  social  service.  That  is  the 
point  that  we  are  insisting  on  here.  For  it  is  the 
reality  of  this  feature  of  fellowship  which  is  the  jus- 
tification of  all  this  which  is  called  the  Supernatural  in 
religion. 

There  is  an  important  difference  between  mere 
house-cleaning  as  a  fact  in  itself  and  house-cleaning  con- 
sidered as  a  feature  of  family  life  and  fellowship, — be- 


64  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL 

tween  merely  cleaning  a  house  as  a  fact  and  fellowship 
expressing  itself  through  necessary  house-cleaning.  In 
the  one  case  all  that  is  necessary  is  physical  strength 
and  some  training.  In  the  other  case  there  has  been 
involved  at  some  time  a  wedding,  before  that  a  court- 
ship, a  meeting  and  a  long  acquaintance.  All  of  these 
have  been  necessary  antecedents  of  that  family  life  and 
affectionate  fellowship  of  which  this  house-cleaning  is 
one  present  necessary  expression. 

If  we  look  upon  family  life  as  merely  an  expedient  to 
insure  having  some  one  to  help  with  the  house-cleaning 
then  all  this  matter  of  courtship  and  affection  must 
seem  superfluous  and  absurd, — just  as  miracles  would 
be  superfluous  if  ethics  and  social  service  were  the  sole 
aim  of  religion. 

ISTo  supernatural  elements,  that  is  no  special  display 
by  God  of  personal  interest  in  us,  would  have  been 
necessary  if  ethical  considerations  and  sociological 
reforms  were  alone  as  independent  facts,  and  were  the 
highest  possible  discipline  of  the  human  life.  All  that 
would  then  have  been  necessary  would  have  been 
education  and  motive, — training  and  wages.  Both  of 
these  could  be  provided  for  in  the  ordinary  operation  of 
nature,  without  the  personal  meeting,  courtship,  wed- 
ding and  affectionate  intercourse  of  God's  supernatural 
dispensations  towards  men.  But  these  are  absolutely 
necessary  to  effect  that  spirit  of  family  affection  and 
fellowship  with  God,  which,  though  it  is  the  main  sup- 
port of  all  the  present  sociological  movement,  yet  far 
transcends  it,  and  is  a  fact  in  itself,  on  an  immensely 
higher  plane. 


SOCIAL  SEEVICE  65 

Mistaken  Conceptions  of  Fellowship 

One  reason  why  we  have  not  given  fellowship  with 
God  the  chief  place  as  the  essential  meaning  of  religion 
is  because  we  have  had  a  wrong  and  inadequate  idea  as 
to  what  kind  of  a  thing  fellowship  with  God  ought 
to  be. 

We  make  the  mistake  of  thinking  that  fellowship 
with  God  is  an  emotional  something  that  has  only  to 
do  with  quiet  hours  of  abstraction  and  meditation. 
This  is  a  practical  age.  This  is  an  age  for  doing  things, 
not  for  cultivating  our  obscure  feelings, — not  for  forcing 
a  sentimental  glow  of  emotions  but  for  hard-headed 
planning,  studying  and  working,  to  meet  the  strenuous 
conditions  of  life  and  fill  creditably  one's  place  in 
society,  as  well  as  to  help  other  men  and  better  the 
condition  of  the  world. 

But  fellowship  with  God  is  not  necessarily  a  matter 
of  soft,  sentimental  feelings.  Our  fellowship  with 
men  is  not  necessarily  of  that  nature.  The  fellowship 
of  two  sentimental  schoolgirls  may  have  considerable 
of  the  soft  emotional  about  it.  But  our  fellowship 
with  people  will  be  very  much  in  accord  with  our 
characters  and  occupations.  The  fellowship  of  scholars 
will  be  on  a  scholarly  plane.  The  fellowship  of  two 
great  engineers  or  artists  will  be  infused  with  their 
work  and  interests.  Two  business  partners  may  have 
most  intimate  and  constant  fellowship  consisting  almost 
entirely  of  hard-headed  business  planning  and  working. 

God  is  a  being  of  boundless  wisdom.  Surely  the 
scholar  may  have  a  fellowship  with  such  a  God  fully 
appropriate  and  satisfying  to  his  scholarly  nature.    God 


66  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

made  the  world  with  all  its  mechanical  and  chemical 
subtleties,  a  most  intricate  and  capable  machine  and  a 
most  perfect  work  of  art,  and  He  is  constantly  manag- 
ing all  its  interests  and  operations  with  perfect  compe- 
tence. No  engineer  or  artist,  no  business  man  or  keen 
executive,  need  fear  that  in  fellowship  with  God  he  is 
not  meeting  with  one  fully  his  equal  in  his  own  specialty, 
and  one  whom  he  can  treat  and  associate  with  on  that 
basis.  He  who  spent  fifteen  long  years  with  hammer 
and  saw  and  plane  in  the  Nazareth  shop,  working  to 
buy  bread  for  His  mother  and  younger  brothers,  can 
be  a  congenial  enough  companion  for  any  working 
man  to-day. 

Is  it  perhaps  because  of  exaggerated  prominence  we 
have  so  long  given  to  pardon  of  sins  and  the  conditions 
of  entering  heaven  that  we  have  come  to  consider  God 
a  being  chiefly  interested  in  exercises  of  obscure,  intro- 
spective emotion,  when  really  He  is  the  most  out- 
of-doors,  practical,  businesslike  being  in  the  whole 
universe.  To  come  into  real,  practical  companionship 
with  such  a  being  must  be  a  bracing  inspiration  to  any 
man  in  any  business.  There  may  be  a  fit  place  for 
emotion,  and  there  is  an  important  use  for  "  The  Quiet 
Hour,"  but  in  ordinary  practice  the  greater  part  of  our 
fellowship  with  God  is  to  be  something  erect,  open- 
eyed,  in  the  broad  daylight  of  our  busy  working  day 
life. 

Shall  we  ask  for  a  definition  of  this  word  Fellow- 
ship? Like  a  great  many  other  things,  perhaps,  we 
know  it  in  our  own  experience  better  than  we  can 
define  it  in  terms.     Of  course  Prayer  is  a  part  of  it, — 


SOCIAL  SERVICE  67 

but  only  a  part.  Not  all  of  our  human  fellowship 
consists  in  talking  with  each  other.  True  fellowship  is 
something  far  deeper,  of  which  talking  is  only  an 
incident. 

Among  other  things  it  will  imply  harmony  and 
cooperation  in  various  lines.  There  should  be  harmony 
of  desire, — which  in  the  case  of  such  a  friend  as  God 
must  be  the  same  as  obedience.  There  will  be  harmony 
of  ideals,  which  will  affect  the  whole  range  of  character 
and  ethics.  There  will  be  unity  of  purpose,  which 
again  must  bring  in  the  whole  field  of  social  service, — 
especially  since  Christ  Himself  has  said, — "  Inasmuch  as 
ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  ye  have 
done  it  unto  me." 

In  general,  all  that  range  of  relations  which  in  the 
Bible  and  Christian  literature  are  indicated  by  the 
terms  Faith,  Trust,  Worship,  Service,  Communion  and 
the  like  are  properly  included  under  this  term  Fellow- 
ship. The  one  essential  is  that  there  be  an  appropriate, 
personal  friendly  relation  with  a  personal  God. 


PLACE  OF  KELIGION  IN  EVOLUTION 

TTT'HAT  is  the  place  of  religion  in  the  evolution 
* *  scheme ,  or  in  the  course  of  nature?  Under 
the  old  conception  that  religion  was  merely  a 
means  for  getting  into  heaven,  it  had  no  place  there. 
It  was  distinctly  differentiated  from  things  natural, 
and  declared  to  have  no  connection  with  this  world  or 
natural  law. 

Under  the  more  modern  popular  conception  religion 
is  brought  entirely  within  the  sphere  of  nature  and 
made  an  integral  part  of  evolution  and  natural  law. 
But  it  is  made  so  at  the  expense  of  all  its  distinctive 
individuality.  It  is  nob  a  separate  and  distinct  thing 
at  all  but  just  a  separate  name  given  to  old  elements 
always  familiar  in  nature.  It  is  merely  aspiration 
after  improvement  of  character, — merely  morality, 
sociology  and  altruistic  emotion,  tinged  with  more  or 
less  belief  of  the  existence  of  God. 

If  our  definition  is  correct,  and  its  essence  is  fellow- 
ship with  God,  has  religion  then  any  place  in  the 
scheme  of  nature  and  evolution?  If  so,  what  is  its 
place  in  the  scheme  ? 

We  will  find  that  it  has  a  most  natural  and  integral 
place  in  the  scheme  of  nature  and  evolution,  and  that 
its  standing  is  not  that  of  a  mere  blend  of  old  and 
familiar  elements,  but  it  is,  as  we  instinctively  feel  it 

68 


PLACE  OF  KELIGION  IN  EVOLUTION       69 

ought  to  be,  a  new,  a  higher  and  a  critical  advance  step 
in  that  great  evolution  progress.  It  is  a  step  entirely 
different  from  anything  achieved  in  the  lower  reaches 
of  the  evolution  process,  yet  entirely  consistent  with 
that  process.  Indeed  it  is  a  step  of  such  a  nature  that 
all  the  rest  of  the  process  may  be  conceived  as  pre- 
paratory to  it,  and  looking  forward  to  it  as  its  goal  or 
purpose. 

God's  Kelation  to  This  Woeld 

If  religion  is  thus  really  a  part  of  the  evolution 
program  what  is  its  relation  to  the  rest  of  evolved 
nature  ?  To  answer  this  question  we  must  first  define 
the  connection  of  God  with  nature,  since  religion,  as 
we  assume,  consists  in  a  personal  relation  with  God. 

In  nature  and  the  evolution  process  the  theistic 
evolutionist  sees  merely  God's  method  of  working. 
Whether  we  consider  the  energies  and  elements  of 
nature  to  be  independent  entities,  and  that  He  created 
and  controls  them,  or  whether  we  consider  them  to  be 
His  immediate  activity  exerted  at  the  time,  is  a  ques- 
tion of  no  particular  urgency.  In  either  case  equally 
it  is  all  His  work,  instituted  and  established  by  Him. 
If  it  is  all  His  work,  then,  as  we  shall  see,  with  all 
its  results,  it  is  the  expression  of  some  purpose  in  His 
mind.  That  is  the  point  we  wish  to  emphasize.  Each 
and  every  feature  of  nature  is  the  result  of  some  real 
purpose  or  desire  in  the  mind  of  God. 

The  theistic  evolutionist  sees  in  God  not  merely 
some  force  or  agency  behind  nature  producing  its  laws, 
but  a  living,  autonomous  person.  He  conceives  God  to 
be  a  real,  intelligent,  personal  being,  and  as  such  always 


70  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

acting  with  purpose,  that  is  to  say,  to  satisfy  some 
desire. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  we  naturally  conceive  of  Him 
in  terms  of  man's  own  spirit  or  mind.  He  may  be  far 
more  than  that,  and  may  have  attributes  and  powers 
we  cannot  construct  any  conception  of.  But  we  have 
good  reason  to  believe  He  has  all  the  attributes  and 
faculties  that  man's  spirit  or  mind  has.  And  so  we 
form  our  conception  of  Him  by  imagining  such  a  mind 
in  infinite  proportions. 

To  do  this  is  not  the  belittling  of  God  to  man's  form, 
which  is  popularly  called  Anthropomorphism.  On  the 
contrary  it  is  forming  the  highest  conception  of  God 
that  it  is  possible  for  us  to  form.  "We  have  no  higher 
materials  out  of  which  to  construct  a  conception. 

It  is  those  who  reject  this  conception  who  belittle 
God.  To  consider  Him  merely  a  great  force  or  tend- 
ency is  to  make  Him  merely  a  species  of  physical 
energy,  like  heat  or  gravity,  and  measurable  in  horse- 
powers. To  consider  Him  merely  a  great  pervasion  of 
life  or  mind  stuff,  without  consciousness  and  without 
personality,  is  really  to  classify  God  as  a  great  vegetable. 

We  are  not  to  define  Him  by  bounding  Him  with 
any  of  the  limitations  of  our  own  minds,  but  if  we 
would  form  our  highest  possible  conception  of  God  we 
must  conceive  that  He  is  all  that  we  are  and  that  all 
our  ordinary  positive  thought  processes  or  powers  have 
a  place  in  His  mind. 

Now  one  of  the  most  essential  and  fundamental  fea- 
tures of  man's  mind  is  Purpose.  Purpose  or  desire 
forms  the  source  of  all  our  acts.    We  have  a  desire, 


PLACE  OF  KELIGION  IN  EVOLUTION       71 

and  we  do  a  certain  thing  to  realize  that  desire  and  get 
pleasure  or  satisfaction.  Such  is  the  essence  of  all  per- 
sonal activity.  If  God  is  to  be  conceived  in  terms  of 
the  attributes  of  our  own  minds  we  must  believe,  as 
we  have  said  above,  that  He  also  has  that  trait  and 
that  His  acts  are  done  to  realize  some  satisfaction 
which  He  desires. 

What  Was  God's  Purpose? 

If  it  be  proper  then  for  us  to  interpret  all  God's  acts 
in  terms  of  desire  and  purpose  we  may  reasonably  ask 
the  question  : — What  satisfaction  did  God  wish  to  obtain 
by  any  given  act  ? 

With  us  the  satisfaction  of  any  act  may  be  physical, 
mental,  social  or  purely  ethical,  but  some  desired  satis- 
faction stands  before  every  act  as  its  purpose.  The 
more  mature,  cultured  and  competent  we  are  the  more 
fully  we  will  perceive  and  enjoy  all  the  satisfactions 
that  any  act  makes  possible.  If  God  is  infinite  and 
perfect  we  may  assume  that  He  perceives,  enjoys  and 
intended  to  enjoy  all  the  satisfactions  His  works  are 
capable  of  affording. 

This  great  universe  progress  or  evolution  process,  if 
it  is  God's  work,  must  not  be  looked  upon  as  merely  an 
aimless  splash  of  articulated  logic  spreading  out  in 
various  directions.  It  is  a  volitional  act  done  with  a 
purpose.  And  we  must  assume  that  God  does  enjoy, 
and  intended  to  enjoy,  every  item  of  satisfaction  that 
it  is  capable  of  yielding  Him. 

If  by  this  great  process  He  has  made  radiant  suns 
revolving  in  beautiful  orbits,  we  may  assume  that  He 


72  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

enjoys  fully  all  the  satisfaction  their  beauty  is  capable 
of  affording  Him,  and  that  He  intended  to  enjoy  it  in 
making  them.  If  He  has  made  marvellous  intricacies 
of  chemical  and  physical  interaction,  forms  of  crystalli- 
zation and  beauties  of  colour,  we  may  assume  that  He 
takes  from  them  all  the  artistic  satisfaction  they  are 
capable  of  affording,  and  that  He  intended  to  do  so. 
If  He  made  animals  with  their  wonderful  actions,  and 
man's  mind  with  its  wonderful  powers  of  logic,  memory 
and  imagination,  we  may  assume  that  these  too  are 
things  that  He  takes  satisfaction  in  watching  and  con- 
templating. 

Social  Fellowship  is  the  Highest  Kind  of 
Satisfaction 

While  we  could  find  satisfaction  in  the  enjoyment  of 
any  or  all  of  such  things,  there  is  one  source  of  satis- 
faction and  enjoyment  that  is  far  higher  and  more 
satisfactory  to  us  than  any  one  of  these.  That  is  per- 
sonal fellowship, — the  social  intercourse  of  soul  with 
soul.  That  we  consider  the  highest  and  most  satisfac- 
tory form  of  enjoyment,  and  in  a  class  by  itself  above 
all  other  kinds. 

If  there  were  the  possibility  then  of  God's  taking 
that  kind  of  satisfaction  also  from  anything  that  He 
had  made,  must  we  not  assume  that  He  would  cer- 
tainly do  so  ?  When  His  created  creatures  had  evolved 
up  to  the  level  of  intellectual,  moral,  social  man  there 
was  a  creature  which  could  afford  to  Him  that  species 
of  satisfaction.  There  was  a  creature  that  could  afford 
to  Him  precisely  this  which  we  consider  the  highest 


PLACE  OF  KELIGION  IN  EVOLUTION       73 

form  of  satisfaction.  So  must  we  not  assume  that  He 
would  take  the  enjoyment  of  that  fellowship,  and  that 
that  was  one  of  His  intentions  in  the  development  of 
this  creature,  man  ?  Or  rather  we  may  say  : — When 
the  Bible  distinctly  declares  that  God  does  desire  and 
ask  for  that  fellowship  we  must  at  least  concede  that  it 
is  not  declaring  something  unscientific  or  illogical. 

To  say  that  there  could  be  this  interplay  of  social 
communion  between  man  and  God  does  not  imply  that 
man  has  become  as  great  as  God  or  in  the  same  class 
with  Him.  It  merely  implies  that  God  is  as  great  as 
man  and  has  every  capacity  and  faculty  that  man  has. 
"With  a  being  of  a  still  higher  order  than  man  there 
might  be  between  that  being  and  God  something  as 
much  higher  than  this  fellowship  as  social  fellowship  is 
higher  than  chemical  affinity.  But  this  interplay  of 
soul  communion  which  can  take  place  between  you  and 
another  man  can  certainly  take  place  between  you  and 
God,  for  God  has  every  power  and  capacity  that  that 
other  man  has.  And  in  as  far  as  God's  nature  is  to  be 
conceived  in  terms  of  our  nature  we  must  assume  that 
He  would  find  satisfaction  in  that  interplay  of  com- 
munion, would  want  it,  and  would  plan  to  have  it. 

This  fellowship  with  God  which  our  Bible  teaches  is 
a  perfectly  natural  extension  then  of  the  one  great 
evolution  progress.  It  is  simply  the  highest  yet  evolved 
of  many  progressive  advances.  We  may  start  with 
merely  matter  and  energy  existing.  Then  we  have 
next  physical  motions  and  chemical  affinity,— the 
action  of  energy  upon  matter.  Then  we  have  life,— 
the  control  of  energy  and  matter  by  life  and  mind, 


74  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

culminating  in  conscious  volition  and  an  autonomous 
person.  As  this  person  advances  higher  and  higher  he 
at  length  reaches  a  stage  when  there  is  possible  this 
communion  and  companionship  between  him  and  God, 
so  that  begins. 

It  is  no  more  supernatural  or  abnormal  for  it  to  be- 
gin than  it  was  for  chemical  combination  to  begin  as 
soon  as  advancing  conditions  arrived  at  the  stage 
where  it  was  possible,  or  for  life  to  begin  its  career  of 
control  and  conscious  achievement  as  soon  as  the  con- 
ditions had  developed  for  that. 

It  is  all  very  natural,  indeed  necessary,  when  we 
come  to  take  this  ultimate  and  adequate  view  of  the 
evolution  process, — when  we  come  to  view  as  the  basal 
fact  not  the  material  and  energies  and  the  changes  they 
are  made  to  go  through,  but  God  planning  all  those 
changes  and  effectively  bringing  them  about.  Viewed 
that  way  evolution  has  intelligible  meaning.  That  is 
the  only  view  of  evolution  that  philosophy  and  the- 
ology should  take  or  can  be  satisfied  with.  Nor  has 
science  any  particular  reason  to  combat  that  view. 

Clear-Cut  Concept  of  God 
It  may  seem  at  first,  perhaps,  to  some  that  this  is 
merely  a  speculative  discursion, — interesting  but  of  no 
conclusive  value.  But  it  is  more  than  that.  It  is 
rather  an  attempt  to  force  a  clear-cut  form  to  our  con- 
ception of  God, — the  common  conception  that  "  God  is 
a  Spirit,"  and  to  follow  that  conception  out  to  its  legit- 
imate results.  It  is  not  scientific  to  form  hazy,  indis- 
tinct, indefinite  conceptions.     If  there  are  just  three 


PLACE  OF  KELIGION  IN  EVOLUTION       75 

kinds  of  things  that  we  know  anything  about, — matter, 
energy  and  mind, — we  do  know  something  very  defi- 
nite about  each  of  them,  as  to  what  they  can  do,  and 
we  must  treat  them  accordingly. 

If  we  conceive  a  thing  to  be  matter  we  must  think  of 
it  as  having  the  attributes  that  matter  has  ;  if  as  energy 
we  must  think  of  it  in  terms  of  the  attributes  and  laws 
that  energy  has.  Equally  if  we  conceive  it  to  be  mind 
we  must  think  of  it  in  terms  of  the  characteristic  at- 
tributes and  propensities  that  mind  is  known  to  have. 

We  are  merely  insisting  that  God,  "  A  Spirit,"  must 
be  conceived  as  having  the  characteristic  attributes  and 
propensities  that  we  see  in  the  other  spirits  that  we 
know,  that  is  to  say  that  like  all  other  minds  He  does 
things  to  secure  satisfactions  that  He  desires.  Also 
that  like  all  other  minds  that  we  know,  one  of  the 
things  that  would  appeal  to  Him  as  a  satisfaction  to 
be  desired  would  be  fellowship  and  personal  intercourse 
with  other  minds. 

We  perhaps  should  note  the  fact  that  the  pleasure 
we  find  in  fellowship  comes  from  giving  favours  and 
happiness  to  a  loved  one  quite  as  much  or  more  than 
from  receiving  favours.  The  higher  and  purer  the  na- 
ture of  the  man  the  more  the  pleasure  of  giving  comes 
to  exceed  the  pleasure  of  receiving.  We  might  con- 
ceive, therefore,  that  with  the  infinitely  high  and  per- 
fect nature  of  God  it  would  be  the  pleasure  of  giving 
favours  only  that  He  would  desire.  When  we  speak 
hereafter  of  God  deriving  pleasure  from  our  fellowship 
we  ought  perhaps  to  consider  that  this  giving  of 
favours  is  what  affords  Him  pleasure  in  the  fellowship. 


76  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

Still  that  is  real  fellowship  and  all  we  may  say  applies 
to  that  as  much  as  to  any  other  kind  of  fellowship,  if 
that  is  the  thing  that  God  desires.  All  our  obedience, 
service  and  communion  may  be  desired  by  God  only 
for  the  benefit  and  happiness  they  bring  to  us. 

Grant  then  that  the  evolution  process  is  the  product 
of  mind  acting  with  a  purpose,  and  it  is  perfectly  legit- 
imate and  logical  to  conclude,  from  the  analogy  of 
our  own  minds,  that  one  of  the  purposes  or  desires  the 
Supreme  Mind  might  have  had  in  view  was  the  satis- 
faction of  fellowship  and  personal  communion  with 
these  evolved  minds  as  soon  as  they  had  evolved  high 
enough  to  make  it  possible. 

We  say  "  might  have  had,"  for  notice  that  all  we 
are  trying  to  show  in  this  place  is  merely  that  the 
fellowship  with  God,  which  our  Bible  teaches,  is  in  the 
line  of  the  evolution  process, — that  it  belongs  in  the 
same  enterprise  as  all  the  rest  of  nature.  We  are  not 
claiming  by  the  above  argument  to  positively  prove 
that  this  fellowship  is  a  fact  and  that  God  desires  it, 
though  really  the  argument  does  have  great  force  as 
pointing  that  way.  We  have  that  belief  already  from 
other  sources.  We  are  taking  for  granted  that  God 
does  desire  this  fellowship, — that  there  is  sufficient 
ground  in  the  Bible  and  in  other  religious  teaching 
for  believing  that  God's  desire  for  this  fellowship  and 
His  granting  it  to  men  is  a  fact.  We  are  merely  in- 
sisting here  that  this  accepted  fact  of  fellowship  be- 
tween men  and  God  is  not  something  entirely  apart 
from  nature  and  outside  of  the  evolution  process.  It  is 
strictly  part  and  parcel  of  the  one  great  scheme  of  na- 


PLACE  OF  KELIGION  IN  EVOLUTION       77 

ture.  It  is  distinctly  connected  with  and  implied  in 
the  great  evolution  movement, — if  indeed  it  may  not 
be  considered  the  one  great  goal  and  culmination  of 
the  whole  process  of  biological  evolution. 

It  is  thus  then  that  we  would  find  our  answer  to  the 
question,  "  What  is  the  relation  of  religion  to  nature 
and  the  evolution  process  ?  "  It  is  an  integral  part 
and  culmination  of  it  all.  For  religion  is  fellowship 
with  God,  and  this  fellowship  with  God  is  quite  of  a 
piece  with  God's  purpose  in  all  the  rest  of  evolving 
nature. 

PURPOSE   OF  THE  WHOLE  EVOLUTION  PROCESS 

Keally  the  theistic  scientist  should  be  a  much  more 
enthusiastic  admirer  of  evolution  than  the  materialist 
or  agnostic,  because  it  means  so  much  more  to  him  and 
is  so  much  more  complete  and  reasonable.  The  mate- 
rialist or  agnostic  merely  sees  a  long  chain  of  articulated 
changes  following  each  other  and  growing  out  of  cause 
and  effect.  He  follows  back  along  the  route  of  this 
progress,  and  presently  he  comes  to  a  great  chasm  that 
he  cannot  bridge.  For  the  introduction  of  life  is  a  fact 
for  which  he  has  thus  far  been  unable  to  find  any 
adequate  cause. 

But  picking  up  the  trail  again  beyond  that  break, 
he  finds  the  same  receding  line  of  physical  interactions 
and  chemical  combinations.  He  follows  still  back. 
He  knows  that  this  progress  could  not  have  been  going 
on  forever.  It  must  have  started  some  time  but  he  is 
utterly  unable  to  find  any  cause  that  could  have  started 
it,  or  any  reason  why  it  should  not  have  started  un- 


78  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

thinkable  millions  of  ages  earlier  if  it  was  capable  of 
starting  at  all. 

Beyond  a  certain  point  in  the  past,  then,  there  is  to 
him  an  utterly  incomprehensible  blank.  Looking  for- 
ward also  he  is  able  to  see  nothing  but  the  gradual 
running  down  of  the  forces  and  processes  now  in  prog- 
ress, and  beyond  that  an  equally  void  and  incom- 
prehensible blank. 

To  the  materialist  evolution  is  merely  a  magnificent 
fragment.  It  is  like  a  vast  bridge,  resting  on  nothing 
at  either  end,  and  even  broken  in  two  in  the  middle. 

But  to  the  theistic  evolutionist  all  is  clear  and  logical, 
and  as  natural  as  for  a  man  to  move  his  hand  or  limb. 
It  is  all  simply  an  act  of  God  done  by  Him  to  achieve 
some  object  which  He  wished  to  achieve.  God  stands 
in  eternity,  like  all  mind  or  spirit  not  necessitated  to 
fixed  times  but  freely  at  His  own  will  and  time  origi- 
nating acts  and  carrying  them  on.  This  great  universe 
process,  so  long  and  vast  to  us,  is  but  one  of  His  leisurely 
acts.  He  began  it  when  He  chose  to  do  so,  and  is  con- 
sistently and  competently  carrying  it  on. 

Not  only  does  every  phase  of  the  act  and  its  product 
yield  presumably  some  satisfaction  to  Him,  but  we 
may  plausibly  suppose  that,  like  our  acts,  it  has  some 
central,  determining  purpose  which  is  the  primary 
object  it  is  to  achieve  in  its  totality. 

If  this  be  so  it  would  not  be  impossible  to  suppose 
that  this  main  purpose  of  it  all  or  at  least  of  that  part 
of  it  which  we  call  Biological  Evolution  was  precisely 
this  which  we  have  been  considering,  this  desire  on 
God's  part  to  have  this  pleasure  of  fellowship,— to  pro- 


PLACE  OF  BELIGION  IN  EVOLUTION       79 

duce  a  race  of  beings  capable  of  affording  Him  this 
opportunity  which  He  desired  of  bestowing  fellow- 
ship. 

We  must  not  suppose,  of  course,  that  this  means  any- 
thing like  a  companionship  of  equality  between  God 
and  men.  It  does  not  mean  that  like  companionship 
between  equals  this  would  fill  all  God's  mind  and  be  a 
major  factor  in  His  life.  We  may  suppose  that  it 
would  be  no  more  to  God  comparatively  than  to  a  man 
would  be  the  companionship  of  a  pet  bird  or  kitten,  or 
something  a  million  times  smaller  still.  Yet  it  would 
be  true,  genuine  fellowship.  God  did  want  it.  And 
all  this  evolution  process  was  His  act  bringing  it  about. 
And  all  this  evolution  process,  by  the  way,  though  so 
long  to  us,  is  an  act  that  would  bulk  no  larger,  com- 
paratively, in  His  infinite  life  than  would  to  a  man  the 
act  of  plucking  a  violet  to  smell  its  fragrance. 

The  Evolution  Process  Foreshadows  Fellow- 
ship by  Men  With  God 

When  we  turn  to  the  converse  side  we  find  practically 
the  same  lesson  taught  by  the  evolution  process. 

Progress  has  branched  out  in  many  directions,  and 
various  different  species  might  perhaps  be  considered 
the  most  advanced  in  each  of  several  lines.  We  might, 
perhaps,  consider  the  tiger,  the  elephant,  the  eagle,  the 
ant,  etc.,  as  each  marking  the  highest  attainment  of 
evolution  in  their  particular  directions.  And  yet  in 
considering  the  ultimate  trend  or  meaning  of  the 
evolution  system  we  do  not  consider  any  one  of  them 
of  any  significance,  but  only  the  one  line  which  has  led 


80  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL 

up  to  our  human  species,  and  man  himself  at  the  head 
of  it. 

In  man  himself  we  no  longer  consider  the  develop- 
ment of  the  physical  body  as  the  significant,  governing 
fact,  but  wholly  the  development  in  the  sphere  of  mind 
and  spiritual  functions. 

There  have  been  several  great  items  of  development 
in  this  sphere.  At  some  point  in  the  past  the  advanc- 
ing species  first  developed  the  power  of  abstract 
thought,  of  logical  reasoning,  of  articulate  speech,  of 
moral  consciousness.  All  these  were  advance  steps, 
taken  when  the  time  was  ripe  for  them.  And  they 
added  very  much  to  the  worth  and  rank  of  the  develop- 
ing creature. 

Of  course  the  evolution  advance  is  going  on  now  just 
as  much  as  ever.  There  are  new  forward  steps  yet  to 
be  taken  by  this  developing  species.  This  advance  may 
possibly  be  in  a  number  of  different  lines,  but  there  is 
one  line  most  plausible  and  probable  and  which  seems 
to  be  the  most  promising  of  them  all.  That  is  the  line 
of  social  progress. 

Man  has  made  great  advance  and  development  on 
the  side  of  his  social  nature.  Social  fellowship  is 
perhaps  the  most  important  of  all  the  factors  that 
make  up  life.  It  is  noble  and  ennobling  in  proportion 
with  the  greatness  and  nobility  of  the  persons  with 
whom  we  have  the  social  fellowship.  If  then  we 
should  come  to  be  able  to  have  this  same  social  fellow- 
ship with  God  Himself  it  would  manifestly  mean  the 
greatest  benefit  and  ennobling  that  we  can  conceive  of, 
coming  to  us. 


PLACE  OP  RELIGION  IN  EVOLUTION       81 

As  we  look  back  over  the  course  of  evolution  we  see 
evolving  nature  apparently  able  some  way  to  attain 
every  phase  of  advance  that  has  presented  itself  as 
valuable.  In  every  case,  in  some  way  the  facilities 
have  at  the  right  time  been  provided  for  making  the 
particular  advance  that  would  be  profitable.  Analogy 
would  therefore  lead  us  to  expect  that  this  advance 
step  will  also  be  made,  and  that  the  facilities  will  all  be 
afforded  for  man  to  make  it.  It  certainly  would  be  a 
most  fitting  and  most  splendid  next  step  of  evolution 
progress,  and  we  may  believe  that  it  is  very  probable 
that  it  will  actually  be  made. 

The  facilities  that  would  make  this  fellowship  possible 
would  be  for  God  to  bestow  manifest  acts  of  fellow- 
ship on  His  part,  and  to  plainly  invite  it  from  us.  It 
is  not  unreasonable,  therefore,  to  expect  that  such  acts 
of  fellowship  would  be  granted  by  Him  to  us.  And 
that  is  just  what  He  is  represented  as  doing  in  all  the 
supernatural  in  the  Bible.  That  is  exactly  what  all 
the  supernatural  is. 

We  have  seen,  then,  that  an  advance  into  a  state  of 
fellowship  with  God  seems  a  plausible  next  step  in  the 
evolution  of  man.  And  we  have  also  seen  that  consider- 
ations of  God's  purpose  in  the  whole  creation  process 
would  lead  us  to  expect  that  He  would  want  that  fellow- 
ship and  would  therefore  bestow  fellowship  upon  us. 

From  both  sides,  thus,  it  is  seen  to  appear  probable 
that  the  next  step  in  the  evolution  process  at  this  point 
will  be  an  advance  into  a  state  of  social  fellowship  be- 
tween God  and  men.  And  this  is  precisely  what  we 
have  defined  religion  in  its  essence  to  be. 


82  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

Religion,  therefore,  defined  as  personal  fellowship 
between  men  and  God,  is  not  only  something  consistent 
with  and  part  of  the  evolution  system.  It  is  a  supreme 
and  culminating  part  of  that  system,  to  which  all  the 
lower  parts  of  the  system  look  forward  as  their  purpose 
or  goal.  And  all  the  supernatural  in  the  Bible,  since  it 
is  but  the  concrete  acts  of  that  fellowship  on  God's 
side,  is  really  a  perfectly  logical  and  integral  part  of 
the  one  great  evolution  movement. 


VI 
VALUE  OF  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

WHAT,  then,  is  the  meaning,  the  value  and 
the  use  of  the  supernatural  in  the  Bible? 
It  is  not  enough  merely  to  prove  that  it  is 
not  unreasonable,  not  a  blemish  and  a  burden.  It  must 
have  some  positive  use.  And  since  it  is  such  a  large 
factor  and  prominent  feature  of  the  Book  it  must  have 
some  very  important  and  fundamental  value.  What  is 
that  value  ?  The  answer  has  been  already  quite  evi- 
dently outlined. 

It  is  too  common  with  us  to  think  of  all  God's  ac- 
tions towards  men  as  intended  solely  to  advance  right 
living  and  make  the  world  better.  We  thus  conceive 
that  the  supernatural  should  be  primarily  a  contribu- 
tion towards  that  object,  that  the  prophecy  and  revela- 
tion were  intended  to  teach  men  right  conduct  and  the 
supernatural  acts  to  reward  or  punish  them  for  their 
good  or  bad  lives.  Or  on  broader  lines  we  conceive  of 
God  dealing  with  nations  to  restrain  their  evil  tenden- 
cies, and  to  specially  preserve  and  prosper  one  nation 
that  was  better  than  the  rest  and  train  and  make  it  fit 
to  be  a  model  and  inspiration  to  the  rest  of  the  world. 
Really  God  does  do  all  those  things,  but  He  does  not 
do  them  by  supernatural  acts.  He  does  them  all  by 
natural  law.  He  was  wise  and  competent  enough  to  be 
able  in  His  first  great  creative  system  to  foresee  and 

83 


84  THE  SUPEE^ATUEAL 

provide  entirely  sufficient  agencies  for  all  that.  He 
never  has  to  do  any  supplementary  work  now  for  that 
purpose.  As  we  have  already  seen,  any  supplementary 
acts  now  primarily  for  such  a  purpose  would  be  a  re- 
flection on  the  sufficiency  of  His  great  creative  act, — 
which  was  explicitly  declared  to  be  "  All  very  Good  " 
(Gen.  1.  31). 

Secondary  Uses 

A  very  common  interpretation  is  that  the  supernatu- 
ral acts,  or  many  of  them,  were  done  for  the  purpose 
of  accrediting  divine  teachers  and  teaching.  God  was 
giving  revelation  of  rules  for  right  living  and  worship, 
and  in  order  that  men  might  be  assured  that  these 
rules  and  commandments  were  really  from  God  He 
accompanied  them  with  various  supernatural  signs  as 
proof  that  they  were  really  from  Him.  Various  im- 
portant religious  doctrines  were  revealed,  and  in  order 
that  men  should  be  convinced  that  they  were  from  God 
and  to  be  believed,  God  accompanied  their  revelation 
with  some  special  divine  mark  or  supernatural  sign. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  that  value  does  inhere  in 
some  of  these  acts.  Such  acts  as  are  recorded  to  have 
been  done  by  Christ  and  by  the  apostles  and  prophets 
are  certainly  adequate  proof  that  the  power  of  God  was 
working  through  and  with  them,  and  they  do  increase 
our  feeling  that  what  they  said  and  did  had  the  in- 
dorsement of  God.  Jesus  Himself  appeals  to  His 
supernatural  works  as  evidence  of  His  person  and 
authority  (John  10 :  3S),  though  there  is  conclusive 
proof  that  that  was  not  the  motive  that  prompted 
them  (cf.  Mark  8:12).  , 


YALUE  OF  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL  85 

Since  we  can  find,  as  we  see  elsewhere,  an  entirely 
sufficient  motive  for  all  these  supernatural  facts  aside 
from  their  evidential  or  disciplinary  value,  and  a  mo- 
tive that  brings  them  entirely  within  the  program  of 
nature  and  the  evolution  scheme,  we  may  freely  admit 
that  as  secondary  results  or  by-products  they  not  only 
give  important  teaching  and  accredit  divine  agents,  but 
were  definitely  intended  by  God  to  do  so.  Saying 
that  is  saying  no  more  than  when  we  say : — "  The 
heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God  and  the  firmament 
showeth  his  handiwork."  Both  the  act  of  making  the 
heavens  revolve  and  the  act  of  performing  these  special 
personal  deeds  are  equally  and  alike  proofs  of  the 
presence  of  God  and  contributions  to  our  knowledge  of 
Him.  But  that  is  not  the  principal  purpose  that  pro- 
duced the  acts  in  either  case. 

These  acts  have  on  appropriate  grounds  an  acknowl- 
edged and  integral  place  in  the  one  great  universe 
scheme,  and  their  specialness  is  fully  justified,  so  there 
is  no  more  incongruity  in  their  contributing  to  common 
evolutional  enterprises,  like  the  teaching  and  welfare 
of  men,  than  there  would  be  in  electricity  or  chemical 
affinity  so  contributing.  And  yet  it  is  impossible  for 
us  to  accept  that  as  the  principal  purpose  that  produced 
them. 

It  is  quite  proper,  in  colloquial  use,  to  say  that  these 
supernatural  facts  do  contribute  and  were  intended  to 
contribute  to  the  teaching  and  welfare  of  men,  and  to 
accredit  men  with  special  divine  authority.  Indeed 
in  our  ordinary  devotional  thought  and  evangelical 
preaching    that,  perhaps,  is   the    purpose  we  ought 


86  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

chiefly  and  ordinarily  to  attribute  to  them.  Just  as  it 
would  be  silly  pedantry  in  our  colloquial  talk  to  refuse 
to  speak  of  the  sun  rising  and  setting. 

But  it  is  different  when  we  come  to  make  an  exact 
philosophical  definition.  Then  we  must  recognize  that 
it  would  be  illogical  to  conceive  of  God  doing  any 
special  or  supernatural  act  primarily  and  specifically 
for  the  purpose  of  giving  teaching  that  could  not  have 
been  gotten  otherwise,  or  of  accrediting  some  person  to 
give  such  teaching. 

Primary  Motive  of  the  Supernatural 
When  we  come  to  make  a  philosophical  definition, 
and  seek  the  one  fundamental  purpose  for  which  all 
these  supernatural  acts  were  done,  we  will  find  that 
they  were  all  done  as  acts  of  fellowship  by  God  to 
men,  and  done  just  for  fellowship'' s  sake.  That  is  their 
primary  purpose,  that  is  their  meaning,  and  that  is 
what  we  must  consider  the  one  fundamental  value  of 
all  of  them. 

When  we  realize  that  this  is  their  meaning  and  their 
purpose,  all  the  philosophical  objections  to  them  dis- 
appear entirely.  They  cease  to  be  exceptional,  abnor- 
mal events  and  interpositions  that  have  to  be  justified 
and  accounted  for,  and  take  their  place  as  a  natural 
and  appropriate,— indeed  necessary, — part  of  the  one 
great  universe  enterprise  of  God. 

For  we  have  already  seen  that  the  whole  of  Biological 
Evolution  seems  to  look  forward  as  its  culmination  to 
God  enjoying  fellowship  with  man  when  he  was  de- 
veloped.    That    seems  to  be  the  most  natural  and 


Lusible  step  to  expect,  and  indeed  seems  to  have 
en  the  purpose  that  underlay  the  whole  enterprise 
>m  the  beginning.  And  these  supernatural  acts  are 
srely  the  concrete  exercise  of  that  fellowship.  They 
3  really  the  only  way  in  which  it  could  be  effectively 
stowed. 

All  the  supernatural  acts  are  personal  acts  of  f  ellow- 
ip  done  by  God  to  men  just  because  He  wanted  to 
gage  in  that  fellowship.  The  fellowship  of  the  acts 
emselves  was  the  one  great  purpose  and  primary 
use,  and  such  a  fellowship  was  a  purpose  that 
actically  lay  infolded  in  all  the  course  of  evolution 
at  went  before  it  and  led  up  to  it.  This  fellowship 
is  as  distinctly  contemplated  in  the  one  great  original 
nstitution  of  things  as  any  other  part  of  the  evolution 
ogram, — just  as  much  as  revolving  of  suns  or  chemical 
inity  or  human  reason.  The  intention  of  this  fellow- 
ip  in  the  mind  of  God  was  a  distinct  part,  and 
ssibly  one  of  the  major  parts  of  the  impulse  that 
ought  about  the  whole  universe  process. 

Fellowship  Must  Consist  of  Just  Such  Acts 
It  is  obvious  that  fellowship  could  only  be  had  by 
eans  of  some  such  acts  as  these  supernatural  events 
corded  in  the  Bible.  It  must  consist  essentially  of 
st  what  these  acts  are.  Fellowship  must  consist  of 
irsonal  acts  of  God  done  to  specific  individuals,  and 
at  is  an  accurate  and  complete  description  of  just 
hat  all  these  supernatural  acts  consist  of  (cf.  pp. 
>,  34,  etc.). 
Here  then  we  have  the  entire  answer  to  the  question : 


88  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL 

— What  is  the  purpose,  meaning  and  use  of  these 
supernatural  acts?  They  are  all  acts  of  fellowship. 
That  is  the  one  main  purpose  that  philosophy  must 
recognize,  even  though  there  may  be  other  secondary 
results  and  by-products  from  them  which  seem  to  us 
more  evident  and  important  because  they  give  such 
exceedingly  great  personal  benefits  to  us. 

That  God  could  accord  fellowship  to  men  only  by 
doing  acts  like  these  supernatural  acts  of  the  Bible  will 
be  readily  apparent.  What  is  fellowship  ?  What  is  it 
as  it  exists  between  man  and  man  in  human  relations  ? 
We  will  doubtless  agree  that  it  must  be  something 
immediate,  something  directed  to  definite  individuals 
and  something  personal. 

There  is  no  fellowship  in  the  fact  that  you  live 
under  the  rule  of  the  king  of  England  or  the  emperor 
of  Germany  and  get  the  protection  and  benefits  that 
come  from  their  rule.  There  is  no  fellowship  in  the 
fact  that  you  contribute  a  sum  of  money  to  a  famine 
relief  fund  for  a  general  distribution  of  food.  There 
is  no  fellowship  in  the  fact  that  you  get  great  benefit 
from  the  machines  invented  by  Singer  or  Bell. 

But  it  is  fellowship  when  the  king  or  emperor  stops 
in  a  hospital  to  speak  a  word  to  a  single  wounded 
soldier,  though  the  benefit  received  be  not  nearly  so 
great  as  in  the  other  case.  It  is  fellowship  if  you  take 
the  money  or  the  food  and  go  personally  and  give  it 
definitely  to  one  or  more  sufferers.  It  is  fellowship  if  the 
inventor  takes  you  personally  through  his  factory  and 
explains  all  its  workings,  or  even  if  he  merely  meets 
you  on  the  street  and  asks  the  way  to  the  post-office. 


VALUE  OF  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL  89 

There  is  no  fellowship  in  the  fact  that  you  receive 
from  God  the  sunlight  and  the  air,  that  He  makes  the 
crops  grow  that  feed  you  and  spreads  out  all  nature  to 
give  you  instruction,  comfort  and  joy.  "In  Him  we 
live  and  move  and  have  our  being,"  but  there  is  no 
fellowship  in  that. 

But  it  was  fellowship  if  He  specially  at  one  single 
time  provided  the  meal  for  the  support  of  the  widow 
of  Sarepta  (1  Kings  17  :  16),  or  preserved  the  lives  of 
the  three  Hebrews  in  the  fiery  furnace  (Dan.  3  :  19-25). 
It  was  fellowship  if  He  stood  and  talked  with  Abra- 
ham of  the  eruption  that  was  going  to  destroy  the  cities 
of  the  plain  (Gen.  18  :  16-33).  It  was  fellowship  if  He 
ever  did  any  favour  to  any  man  that  was  intended  di- 
rectly for  him  alone  and  was  not  merely  a  spontaneous 
working  of  natural  agencies  available  for  any  one  that 
might  avail  himself  of  it. 

That  is  the  nature  of  all  these  incidents  in  the  Bible 
that  are  called  supernatural.  They  are  merely  God 
doing  immediate,  personal  acts  to  individuals.  They 
are  acts  that  are  no  more  divine  than  the  sunlight  or 
chemical  affinity  are,  but  unlike  those  things  they  are 
acts  not  universal,  continuous  and  general  for  all  the 
world,  but  restricted  to  the  one  time,  and  specifically 
directed  to  some  person  or  limited  group.  That  is  the 
feature  that  causes  us  to  give  them  the  name  supernat- 
ural. And  that  really  is  the  feature  that  gives  them 
all  their  value  (cf.  Chapter  II). 

This  supernatural  in  the  Bible  contains  just  the  fea- 
tures necessary  to  constitute  it  fellowship  in  the  fullest 
degree.    It  is  composed  of  just  the  two  most  character- 


90  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

istic  elements  that  constitute  ordinary  fellowship.  It 
consists  of  both  conversations, — prophecy, — and  fa- 
vours,— miracles, — the  very  two  things  most  character- 
istic of  our  ordinary  human  fellowships.  If  God  is  to 
give  fellowship  at  all  this  is  just  the  way  we  must  ex- 
pect that  He  would  give  it. 

It  is  Fellowship  foe  Fellowship's  Sake 
These  supernatural  acts  are  not  primarily  a  means  to 
effect  something  or  to  prove  something.  They  are  the 
very  thing  itself.  The  mother  does  not  kiss  her  child 
to  prove  that  she  loves  it  or  to  teach  it  something,  nor 
yet  for  any  physical  benefit  it  is  to  the  child.  It  is  not 
done  as  a  means  for  something  else.  She  kisses  it  be- 
cause she  wants  to  kiss  it.  The  kiss  itself  is  the  object. 
It  is  the  natural  method  of  fellowship  between  the 
mother  and  her  child.  It  requires  no  other  explana- 
tion or  justification.  Whatever  other  benefits  may  or 
may  not  result  indirectly  from  it,  that  is  its  essential 
meaning  and  value. 

Just  so  the  supernatural,  both  the  favours  and  the 
conversation,  is  all  just  the  normal,  natural  outflow  of 
God's  friendship  reaching  out  and  touching  various 
men  because  God  wanted  to  give  friendship,  fellowship 
and  personal  touch  to  them  specifically.  It  is  itself  the 
important  fact  and  itself  the  purpose  and  the  object. 

TVe  ought  to  entirely  dismiss  from  our  minds  the 
idea  that  God  was  doing  all  His  recorded  acts  of  kind- 
ness and  helpfulness  to  people  for  the  sake  of  some  ul- 
terior motive  of  teaching  or  elevating  the  world.  That 
would  be  considering  God  as  always  "  acting  a  part," 


VALUE  OF  THE  STJPEENATUEAL  91 

and  in  a  degree  insincere.  God  is  the  most  genuine 
and  sincere  being  in  the  universe,  and  we  misjudge 
Him  if  we  try  to  attribute  any  of  His  acts  of  kindness 
to  any  ulterior  and  calculated  motives.  The  personal 
kindness  itself  is  always  God's  primary  desire  and  mo- 
tive, and  any  other  beneficial  results  are  entirely  sec- 
ondary and  incidental. 

This  Supernatural  Regime  is  the  Basis  and 
Substance  of  Eeligion 

Just  because  these  incidents  have  that  meaning,  the 
fact  of  their  occurrence  is  a  fact  of  enormous  impor- 
tance to  us.  All  our  religion  is  based  upon  that  fact 
and  grows  out  of  it.  We  could  not  have  any  religion 
at  all  without  these  incidents,  or  without  the  belief  of 
something  like  them  or  equivalent  to  them. 

We  could  have  Theology.  We  could  have  Ethics. 
We  could  have  all  that  pertains  to  both  belief  and 
character.  Those  are  things  that  are  amply  provided 
for  by  ordinary  natural  law  in  the  evolution  process. 
That  is  the  proper  source  from  which  to  expect  to  get 
help  towards  them.  Indeed  we  have  seen  that  we 
could  not  justify  the  thought  of  God  doing  anything 
supernatural  directly  and  primarily  for  the  purpose  of 
assisting  towards  those  objects. 

But  religion, — a  felt  sense  of  fellowship  with  God, — 
is  something  which  for  us  grows  directly  out  of  our  be- 
lief that  God  has  done,  and  therefore  may  be  expected 
to  do,  personal  acts  to  individuals.  It  could  not  be 
produced  in  any  other  way. 

And  may  we  not  surmise  that  the  present  tendency 


92  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

in  some  quarters  to  drop  that  feature  of  real  fellowship 
with  God  out  of  religion  and  make  it  solely  and  ex- 
clusively a  matter  of  character  and  social  service,  is  a 
logical  and  inevitable  result  from  the  denial  or  waning 
belief  in  these  supernatural  acts  recorded  in  the  Bible. 
This  tendency,  by  the  way,  to  so  specially  emphasize 
the  features  of  character  and  service,  we  need  not  con- 
sider as  something  bad.  No  great  movement  that 
God's  evolution  process  brings  about  is  ever  wholly 
bad.  This  tendency  is  to  a  large  extent  a  distinctly 
salutary  one.  It  will  have  enormous  good  results  in 
the  world.  It  has  corrected  a  too  mystical  and  selfish 
attitude  which  had  come  to  characterize  Christian  life, 
and  turned  the  direction  of  men's  activities  to  the  eth- 
ical and  sociological  work  which  was  always  intended 
to  be  their  object. 

But  we  need  the  heart  and  life  as  well  as  the  activi- 
ties. And  the  heart  and  life  must  consist  in  the  re- 
ligion of  fellowship  with  God.  That  is  something 
which  our  fathers  got  by  firm  belief  of  these  friend- 
ship acts  of  God  to  men,  and  we  may  only  get  it  again 
by  return  to  the  same  source. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  paramount  value 
of  the  whole  Bible  to  us  lies  precisely  in  these  parts  and 
these  features  of  it  which  we  call  the  Supernatural,  be- 
cause they  are  the  actual  exercise  on  GooVs  part  of  that 
fellowship  with  men  vjhich  is  the  essence  of  religion. 

Silent  Fellowship 
"We  may  notice,  however,  that  fellowship  may  be  of 
two  kinds.    It  may  be  active  and  concrete,  or  it  may 


VALUE  OF  THE  SUPEENATUEAL  93 

be  silent  and  passive.  It  may  ordinarily  consist  of 
conversations  between  two  persons  and  various  cour- 
tesies and  favours  done  by  one  to  the  other,  but  it  may 
consist  in  the  mutual  consciousness  of  being  present 
with  one  another,  with  nothing  said  or  done.  In  that 
case,  however,  there  must  be  the  memory  of  conver- 
sations, favours  or  other  personal  acts  and  communi- 
cations in  the  past,  to  make  it  real  fellowship. 

It  is  here  that  we  find  the  great  importance  of  the 
miracles  in  the  Bible  as  a  contribution  towards  our 
fellowship  with  God  now.  We  may  presume  that  the 
greater  part  of  our  fellowship  with  God  now  will  not 
consist  in  spectacular  or  miraculous  receiving  of  favours 
and  revelations,  but  will  be  of  this  last  named,  silent 
kind,  as  when  two  persons  are  together  in  enjoyable 
companionship  without  any  actual  conversation  or  com- 
munications passing  between  them. 

We  know  that  God  is  present  with  us,  and  being  so 
the  remembrance  of  these  acts  of  personal  favour  and 
fellowship  to  individuals  recorded  in  the  Bible  enables 
us  to  have  the  feeling  of  real  fellowship  with  Him. 
For  though  these  acts  were  not  done  to  us  yet  they 
were  done  personally  to  individuals  like  ourselves,  and 
that  enables  us  to  have  the  feeling  to  some  extent. 

Now  of  course,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  true  prob- 
ably with  most  of  us  that  this  feeling  of  fellowship 
with  God  is  greatly  roused  by  the  memory  of  certain 
conspicuous  personal  experiences  of  our  own,  as  for  in- 
stance at  our  conversion,  or  at  some  great  deliverance 
or  answer  to  prayer,  when  we  have  felt  very  vividly 
that  God  was  with  us  and  giving  us  a  favour. 


94  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

But  here  also  there  is  no  question  that  these  special 
experiences  of  our  own  were  really  the  result  of  the 
Bible  Supernatural, — that  it  was  the  influence  of  these 
instances  of  personal  touch  by  God  to  men  recorded  in 
the  Bible  which,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  con- 
tributed decisively  to  make  it  possible  for  us  to  have 
these  experiences  and  to  realize  and  feel  that  they 
were  actually  the  work  of  God.  We  would  never 
have  been  able  to  do  so  without  the  influences  of  that 
record,  as  we  shall  see  presently. 

Teaching  Yalue  of  the  Supernatural 
This  opens  up  to  us  the  whole  question  of  the  teach- 
ing value  of  these  supernatural  acts.  This  question  we 
can  freely  take  up  without  embarrassment  now  that  we 
have  found  an  independent  purpose  for  their  occurrence 
which  is  quite  in  accord  with  reason  and  with  all  the 
evolution  movement. 

If  fellowship  with  God  is  an  integral  part  of  the 
evolution  process,  and  all  the  so-called  supernatural 
events  in  the  Bible  are  merely  acts  of  fellowship  by 
God  to  men,  then  these  acts  are  all  a  normal  and  in- 
tegral part  of  nature.  They  are  inside  of  the  evolu- 
tion system  when  rightly  considered,  and  there  can 
be  no  possible  objection  urged  against  them  either 
on  scientific  or  philosophical  grounds.  Though  some- 
what rare  and  unusual  they  are  just  as  normal  and 
legitimate  a  part  of  the  evolution  machinery  as 
magnetism,  or  earthquakes,  or  the  first  introduction 
of  life,  or  any  other  phase  of  the  great  panorama  of 
nature. 


VALUE  OF  THE  SUPEENATUEAL  95 

If  then  they  are  a  perfectly  normal  part  of  the 
machinery  of  nature  the  way  is  freely  open  for  us  to 
estimate  their  teaching  value  and  ethical  use.  Such 
an  inquiry  would  be  greatly  embarrassed  as  long  as  we 
felt  compelled  to  consider  them  special  interpositions 
outside  the  evolution  machinery.  We  would  be  obliged 
to  ask  in  every  instance : — "  Is  it  reasonable  that  God 
should  bring  in  this  outside  agency  to  secure  this 
benefit  and  teaching  when  it  might  possibly  have  been 
produced  by  the  agencies  already  provided  in  nature  ?  " 
"Why,  if  He  was  infinitely  competent,  did  He  not 
provide  in  the  first  constitution  of  things  a  means  to 
produce  this  good  result  as  He  did  for  so  very  many 
others  ?  " 

But  now  we  are  no  longer  confronted  with  that 
question.  For  these  agencies  are  just  as  integral  and 
legitimate  a  part  of  nature  and  the  machinery  of  evo- 
lution as  any  other  agencies.  And  it  is  therefore  just 
as  proper  to  look  to  them  for  desired  results  as  it  is  to 
look  to  any  other  source. 

We  will  find  that  these  things  to  which  we  give  the 
name  Miracles  or  Supernatural  events  have  a  very  dis- 
tinct teaching  and  inspirational  value  to  us.  And  the 
value  grows  precisely  out  of  their  specialness  or  so- 
called  supernaturalness. 

The  whole  genius  of  our  religion  and  spiritual  life 
is  of  the  same  essential  character  as  this  which  we 
call  the  supernatural,  and  it  needs  the  sight  of  these 
concrete,  visible  events  to  make  real  and  credible  to 
us  much  of  our  own  inner,  spiritual  experience  which 
does  not  have  visible,  material  verification. 


96  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

An  Illustration 

We  may  illustrate  by  a  concrete  and  typical  incident. 
A  young  preacher  was  recently  appointed  to  a  parish 
some  distance  down  the  seacoast.  He  planned  and 
arranged  to  go  there  by  a  certain  steamer.  But  some 
way  he  was  delayed  by  farewell  meetings  and  leave- 
takings  so  that  he  just  missed  the  boat  and  it  went  off 
without  him.  That  night  that  boat  was  wrecked  a 
short  distance  down  the  coast,  and  nearly  every  one 
on  board  was  drowned.  That  young  man  has 
always  felt  that  being  caused  to  miss  that  boat 
was  a  special  favour  intentionally  brought  about  by 
God  for  him,  and  it  has  greatly  increased  and  made 
vivid  his  sense  of  nearness  to  God  and  fellowship  with 
Him. 

Is  it  reasonable  and  correct  that  he  should  feel  so  ? 
Those  events  all  came  about  by  natural  and  normal 
causes.  The  storm,  the  rock,  the  farewell  meetings 
and  lingering  leave-takings  were  all  perfectly  normal 
and  natural  things.  Why  should  he  think  that  God 
had  anything  to  do  with  them,  even  if  they  all  did 
converge  to  produce  a  situation  that  was  to  him  a  very 
happy  escape  from  death  ? 

Or,  to  look  on  the  question  from  another  view- 
point : — Everything  that  occurs  is  ultimately  the  result 
of  God's  work.  It  was  equally  the  work  of  God  that 
when  he  walked  by  a  mountain  the  cliffs  adhered  to- 
gether by  cohesion  and  did  not  fall  and  crush  him,  or 
that  the  waters  of  the  ocean  were  held  in  their  bed  by 
gravitation  and  did  not  flow  out  and  engulf  him.  But 
in  neither  of  those  cases  is  there  any  remote  suggestion 


VALUE  OF  THE  SUPERNATURAL  97 

of  any  conscious  intention  on  God's  part  directed  per- 
sonally towards  his  safety. 

Though  there  was  rather  a  peculiar  situation  and 
grateful  coincidence  here,  yet  what  rational  grounds 
could  justify  him  in  believing  that  there  was  here,  any 
more  than  in  the  other  case,  any  conscious  intention  on 
God's  part  directed  towards  his  safety  ? 

We  may  answer  that  he  could  reasonably  think  so  if 
he  knew  that  it  was  God's  custom  to  thus  consciously 
care  for  individuals  and  intentionally  arrange  for  fa- 
vours to  come  to  them  personally.  Or  if  he  knew  that 
God  did  such  things  for  persons  who  were  trying  to  live 
in  fellowship  with  Him,  and  he  was  conscious  of  thus 
trying  to  live  in  fellowship  with  God.  In  that  case  it 
would  be  reasonable  for  him  to  believe  that  this  was 
an  instance  of  that  same  kind  of  thing  that  he  knew 
had  occurred  in  the  past,  and  that  it  was,  what  it  ap- 
peared on  its  face  to  be,  a  case  of  God  really  doing  a 
personal  favour  to  him. 

Now  these  miracles  of  the  Bible  are  all  distinctly  ar- 
ranged to  produce  just  that  feeling  and  belief.  In  the 
first  place  they  are,  as  we  shall  see,  practically  all  acts 
of  helpfulness  to  persons  who  were  in  some  distinct 
relation  of  fellowship  with  God.  In  the  second  place 
they  are  so  arranged  as  to  conspicuously  be  seen  to  be 
God's  work.  Their  most  prominent  characteristic  is 
this  specialness  which  marks  them  as  God's  personal 
acts.  They  are  either  things  out  of  the  ordinary  course 
of  nature  or  things  specially  predicted  and  promised 
beforehand.  This  specialness  impresses  that  they  are 
really  acts  of  God's  special  intention,  and  they  are  thus 


98  THE  SUPERNATUKAL 

vividly  felt  to  be  God  doing  personal  favours  to  specific 
individuals,  and  thus  make  us  feel  that  that  is  a  thing 
that  God  may  be  expected  to  do. 

The  great  benefit,  then,  which  the  miracles  bring  to 
us  in  our  present  personal  life,  is  to  impress  upon  us 
and  make  us  feel  vividly  that  God  cares  personally 
for  us  as  individuals  and  may  be  expected  to  do 
things  specifically  and  intentionally  for  personal  fa- 
vours to  us. 

We  need  not  stop  to  ask  the  question  whether  possi- 
bly men  could  not  have  learned  this  truth  about  God 
in  some  other  way,  by  a  philosophical  induction  from 
His  perfection  perhaps,  or  some  other  process.  Whether 
they  could  or  could  not  have  gained  that  knowledge 
and  feeling  by  some  other  process  this  is  the  process 
that  God  intended  should  produce  it.  And  as  we  have 
seen  that  these  miracles  are  just  as  integral  a  part  of 
the  evolution  machinery  as  anything  else,  it  is  just  as 
reasonable  that  He  should  plan  that  it  be  done  by  this 
agency  as  by  any  other. 

Historically  it  is  a  fact  that  that  is  the  way  in  which 
this  feeling  has  been  produced  and  ingrained  in  the 
Christian  consciousness.  It  has  come  about  by  a  long- 
heredity  of  vivid  belief  that  God  did  these  acts  of  per- 
sonal kindness  to  individuals  recounted  in  the  Bible 
and  called  supernatural.  Even  with  those  that  doubt 
or  repudiate  all  these  miracles  this  same  feeling  is 
present  in  their  hearts  as  an  unconscious  legacy  from 
this  same  source. 

This  is  not  a  new  doctrine.  Such  has  always  been 
the  feeling  and  belief  of  Christians,  only  we  have  not 


VALUE  OF  THE  SUPERNATURAL  99 

always  given  it  the  frank  recognition  and  prominence 
in  our  systems  of  theology  which  it  ought  to  have. 

Special  Providence 

It  will  be  proper  at  this  point  to  consider  a  possible 
wrong  impression  that  may  have  been  caused  by  the 
frequently  repeated  assertion  that  God  does  not  inter- 
fere with  the  evolution  process, — that  He  will  never 
do  a  supernatural  act  primarily  for  the  sake  of  teaching 
any  truth,  advancing  any  good  cause,  or  making  the 
world  or  any  individual  better.  We  have  said  that  all 
these  objects  are  the  natural  province  of  the  evolution 
process  and  were  all  provided  for  from  the  beginning 
as  God  wished  them  to  be  provided  for,  so  He  will 
never  do  anything  special  now  primarily  for  the  pur- 
pose of  furthering  them. 

Does  this  mean  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  what 
we  call  Providence  ? — that  we  may  never  expect  God 
to  do  any  present  act  now  for  our  help  ?  Does  it  mean 
that  our  conception  of  God's  present  sympathetic,  per- 
sonal care  over  us  and  provision  for  us  is  a  mistake  ? 
Does  it  mean  that  we  are  left  entirely  to  our  own  re- 
sources in  our  efforts  to  succeed  in  life,  and  the  thought 
that  we  have  a  heavenly  Father,  who  takes  a  friendly 
interest  in  helping  and  directing  us,  is  a  delusion  ? 

Does  it  mean  that  the  world  is  grinding  away  under 
the  sway  of  evolutional  forces  and  natural  law  alone, 
and  however  much  those  laws  and  forces  may  tend  to 
baffle,  crush,  and  destroy  us,  God  will  look  on  indiffer- 
ent, and  do  nothing  to  protect  or  help  us  ?  Is  our  con- 
ception that  "  God  is  making  all  things  work  together 


100  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

for  good  to  them  that  love  him"  (Rom.  8 :  28),  and  that 
we  need  fear  no  evil  while  He  is  near  us  (Ps.  23 : 4), 
merely  a  pious  superstition  ?  Are  we  left  in  all  things 
absolutely  to  the  results  of  the  working  of  natural 
law? 

Not  at  all.  We  have  said  only  that  God  will  never 
do  a  special  or  supernatural  act  for  the  jmrpose  of  mak- 
ing the  world  better,  or  for  the  purpose  of  advancing 
any  of  the  work  that  natural  law  and  evolution  are  en- 
gaged on.  That  is  the  "  Manufacturing  Process."  God 
was  competent  enough  to  make  machinery  entirely  ade- 
quate to  perfect  the  manufacturing,  and  does  not  need 
nor  intend  to  interfere  to  do  any  part  of  it  by  hand. 

But  that  does  not  mean  that  He  is  never  going  to 
come  into  any  personal  touch  with  the  product  after  it 
is  manufactured  and  He  takes  it  over  for  use.  The  use 
that  He  intends  to  make  of  this  manufactured  product — 
namely  men— is  to  engage  with  them  in  the  enjoyable 
interplay  of  social  fellowship  and  friendship.  Any 
kind  of  present  personal  activity  by  God  or  any  help  to 
us  that  would  come  under  that  category  may  be  freely 
expected  and  looked  for. 

We  have  said  that  whatever  special  personal  acts 
God  may  do  they  are  never  done  primarily  for  the  pur- 
pose of  making  the  world  wiser  and  better  or  effecting 
anything  that  natural  law  was  established  to  effect. 
We  were  speaking  specifically  and  solely  of  the  primary 
purpose  of  the  acts, — not  of  the  possibility  of  such 
present  personal  acts,  nor  yet  of  their  incidental  results, 
but  only  of  the  formal  purpose  for  which  they  were 
done.     We  have  assumed  that  such  personal  acts  are 


VALUE  OF  THE  SUPERNATURAL         101 

done.  The  whole  teaching  of  the  Bible  as  well  as  the 
universal  instincts  of  men  assert  that  there  are  such 
acts, — that  God  does  do  personal  acts  and  exert  control 
for  the  benefit  of  individuals. 

What  we  are  insisting  on  here  is  that  the  motive  for 
these  acts  is  just  a  homely  personal  kindness  to  the 
persons  affected.  God's  motive  in  it  all  is  not  "  The 
Manufacturing  Interests," — making  the  world  better, 
or  teaching  and  training  the  race,  but  purely  and  simply 
the  desire  to  be  kind  and  companionable  to  some  one, 
because  it  is  a  pleasure  to  Him  to  be  kind  and  com- 
panionable to  persons.  That  is  a  purpose  and  motive 
that,  in  our  philosophy,  we  can  justify.  Any  other  we 
could  not. 

From  the  view-point  maintained  here  we  are  right  in 
feeling  that  God  is  personally  controlling  and  directing 
things  in  our  interest.  We  are  right  in  feeling  that 
with  sympathetic  interest  in  us  He  is  constantly  giving 
us  help  in  our  business  and  in  our  lives,  removing  diffi- 
culties and  dangers,  and  effectively  guiding  us  into 
the  most  advantageous  ways.  Certainly  He  does 
those  things.  And  it  is  precisely  the  prime  intention 
of  all  the  discussions  thus  far  made  to  show  that  He 
does  do  them,  and  that  it  is  possible  to  do  them  with- 
out in  the  least  colliding  with  the  integrity  of  natural 
law  and  the  evolution  system. 

Such  personal  care  and  help  of  God  to  the  individual 
is  not  only  possible  and  reasonable.  It  is  the  character- 
istic feature  of  this  present  era.  This  might  indeed  be 
called  the  era  of  religion, — the  era  of  fellowship  be- 
tween God  and  men. 


102  THE  SUPERNATUBAL 

What  we  have  been  insisting  on  is  that  such  personal 
help  and  care  is  not  an  amateurish  effort  to  piece  out 
an  incomplete  work,  or  an  expedient  to  repair  some 
damage  that  has  developed.  It  is  an  entirely  reason- 
able and  integral  part  of  God's  one  great  plan,  and 
has  the  same  standing  in  that  respect  as  anything  else 
in  evolution  or  natural  law.  For  it  is  the  very  path 
that  evolution  was  designed  and  intended  to  take  at 
this  stage  of  the  progress. 

Not  Under  Law  but  Grace 
The  declaration  that  "We  are  not  under  the  Law 
but  under  Grace  "  (Rom.  6:14)  has  really  far  wider 
application  than  the  mere  matter  of  sin  and  punish- 
ment. It  applies  to  our  whole  standing  and  treatment 
by  God.  It  extends  in  a  certain  sense  even  to  natural 
law.  Natural  law  is  still  in  operation,  and  we  are  still 
in  contact  with  it,  but  we  are  not  left  under  its  un- 
hindered dominance.  We  stand  in  such  a  personal, 
companionable  relation  to  the  one  who  established  and 
is  carrying  on  all  this  natural  law  that  He  will  see  that 
our  personal  interests  are  personally  and  sympathetic- 
ally cared  for  quite  irrespective  of  what  would  have 
ordinarily  been  the  effects  of  natural  law  unhampered 
upon  us. 

Not  less  but  much  more  than  under  the  old  inter- 
pretations may  we  feel  God's  personal  care  an  actual 
factor  in  all  our  experiences  and  enterprises.  Such 
care  is  not  a  special  thing,  an  interposition,  a  side  enter- 
prise. It  is  just  the  appropriate  condition  of  the  stage 
of  evolution  at  which  we  have  arrived.     It  is  just  as 


VALUE  OF  THE  SUPEENATUEAL  103 

reasonable  and  natural  for  this  stage  as  gravitation  or 
reproduction  in  the  previous  stages  of  the  process. 

God  is  our  personal  friend  now,  and  wants  to  do  and 
will  do  for  us  everything  that  it  is  appropriate  for  a 
friend  to  do.  That  is  the  dominant  fact  of  this  era. 
It  is  something  that  takes  precedence  over  all  the 
claims  of  natural  law,  and  to  which  even  natural  law 
must  contribute.  For  He  who  is  our  friend  is  the 
author  and  master  of  natural  law  itself. 

The  only  thing  that  conditions  all  this  is  that  we 
really  be  in  this  relation  of  friends  and  companions  of 
God.  It  must  be  a  mutual  affair.  Friendship  and 
fellowship  must  always  be  so.  Only  if  we  have  defi- 
nitely assumed  that  relation  of  friend  and  companion 
does  it  apply  to  us, — only  in  the  degree  that  we  are  in 
whole-hearted  friendship  and  fellowship  with  God.  In 
as  far  as  we  are  in  such  fellowship  we  can  believe  that 
it  applies  to  us. 

We  can  fully  believe,  then,  that  God  is  controlling 
and  shaping  events  with  personal  reference  to  our 
individual  happiness  and  well  being  (Eom.  8  :  28). 
Whether  He  is  doing  it  by  special  interpositions  or 
doing  it  inside  of  and  by  means  of  the  course  of  nature 
which  He  established  in  the  beginning,  is  a  question 
which  we  do  not  need  to  discuss  at  all.  From  the 
standpoint  of  the  great  evolution  system  one  way 
would  be  fully  as  reasonable  and  justifiable  as  the 
other.  He  is  doing  it  in  just  whichever  way  His 
wisdom  sees  fit  and  convenient  in  each  several  case. 

But  He  is  doing  it.  And  He  is  doing  it  not  for  the 
advancement  of  the  world  or  the  success  of  some  good 


104  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

cause,  and  not  necessarily  because  of  the  intrinsic  value 
of  the  results  secured  in  all  cases.  He  is  doing  it  solely 
and  specifically  because  He  wants  to  do  us  kindness 
and  wants  to  make  us  feel  and  enjoy  His  companion- 
ship. All  such  providences  of  God  are  entirely  things 
done  as  acts  of  fellowship  between  friend  and  friend. 


VII 
PKAYER 

CLOSELY  allied    to    the  foregoing,   we  must 
notice  that  the  supernatural  in  the  Bible  has 
a  most  necessary  and  intimate  relation  to  all 
our  Prayer  Life. 

Prayer  is  one  of  the  most  fundamental  offices  of 
religion.  We  may  count  it  the  most  essential  of  them 
all.  Where  there  is  prayer  there  is  religion.  Where 
there  is  not  prayer  or  something  that  is  its  equivalent, 
there  may  be  excellent  ethical  culture,  sociological 
effort  and  theological  acumen,  but  there  is  no  re- 
ligion,— at  least  none  in  the  sense  in  which  we  have 
defined  the  term  here  of  fellowship  with  God. 

Prayer  Implies  the  Supernatural 
It  would  not  be  difficult  to  show  that  the  reality  of 
our  prayer  life  is  dependent  almost  entirely  upon  a 
feeling  which  we  have  derived,  consciously  or  un- 
consciously, from  the  miracles  in  the  Bible.  Prayer 
to  God  would  be  meaningless  without  the  belief  and 
the  feeling  that  He  takes  a  sympathetic  interest  in  the 
individual  and  definitely  gives  him  personal  and  specific 
help.  Just  to  impress  that  very  feeling  is  the  one 
great  value  of  all  the  miracles  to  us  and  really  those 
miracles  are  the  only  known  facts  that  definitely  de- 

105 


106  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

clare  that  God  does  give  personal  interest  and  help  to 
individuals. 

In  as  far  as  any  prayer  consists  of  petitions  or  asking 
for  things  it  implicitly  expresses  a  desire  that  God 
would  do  something  aside  from  what  the  ordinary 
course  of  nature  left  to  itself  would  effect.  Every 
such  prayer  is  therefore  really  a  request  to  God  to 
work  a  miracle.  We  may  not  expect  or  call  for  any 
visible,  physical  miracle  like  healing  the  blind  or  turn- 
ing water  into  wine,  but  a  manipulation  of  purely 
mental  and  spiritual  forces  by  God  for  us  would  be 
just  as  much  an  intrusion  into  natural  law  and  as 
truly  working  a  miracle  as  multiplying  the  loaves  or 
stilling  the  tempest. 

It  is  a  naive  kind  of  ignorance  to  overlook  this  fact, 
yet  we  do  overlook  it,  and  we  have  a  feeling  that  it 
would  be  unscientific  to  imagine  God  doing  a  physical 
miracle  in  these  days  but  quite  legitimate  to  imagine 
Him  doing  almost  anything  in  the  mental  sphere. 
The  mental  sphere  and  the  physical  sphere  are  both 
equally  parts  of  nature,  and  equally  governed  by 
natural  law.  For  God  to  exert  any  influence  whatever 
in  either  sphere  directly  for  the  personal  interests  of 
any  petitioner  would  be  just  as  much  a  supernatural 
event  and  a  miracle  as  any  of  those  that  are  recorded 
in  the  Bible. 

Some  people  try  to  avoid  this  conclusion  and  still 
retain  a  province  for  prayer  by  saying  that  God  does 
not  give  any  concrete  response  but  we  get  comfort  and 
benefit  by  the  mere  seeking  for  and  contemplation  of 
His  sympathy.     But  that   can  only  be  legitimate  if 


PRAYER  107 

God  does  really  give  personal  sympathy  to  us  indi- 
vidually. If  He  does  not  our  belief  is  superstition.  If 
He  does,  there  is  no  difference  in  principle  between 
that  and  His  sending  manna  from  heaven  to  feed  us. 

We  must  remember  that  mind  is  just  as  natural  and 
integral  a  part  of  this  universe  as  matter  is.  The 
states  and  interactions  of  mind  are  just  as  much  the 
subject  of  natural  law  as  the  activities  of  oxygen  or 
electricity.  It  would  be  just  as  much  an  irruption  into 
the  natural  working  of  the  system  He  had  made  for 
God  to  give  spiritual  encouragement  and  uplift  to  a 
soul  by  His  personal  sympathy  as  it  would  be  to  still 
the  winds  of  Galilee  or  heal  the  leper  by  a  touch. 

Even  those  parts  of  our  prayers  that  do  not  consist 
of  petitions  but  merely  of  thanks,  confession  or  other 
kinds  of  fellowship,  almost  equally  require  the  feeling 
that  God  takes  a  sympathetic  interest  in  us  personalty. 
For  us  to  approach  God  in  any  personal  way  implies 
the  belief  that  He  may  be  expected  to  make  an  equally 
personal  response  of  some  kind,  or  at  least  take  per- 
sonal, sympathetic  notice  of  us  individually. 
[  Thus  all  our  acts  of  worship  of  every  kind  in  some 
degree  imply  the  belief  of  God  doing  something  out- 
side of  what  is  included  in  what  we  call  nature  and 
natural  law. 

As  Christians  we  believe  that  this  expectation  is  well 
founded  and  that  God  will  do  such  things.  We  be- 
lieve that  in  answer  to  prayer  He  will  give  substantial 
favours,  not  only  sympathy  and  mental  and  moral 
help,  but  actual  physical  help  and  favours  as  well. 
We  have  gotten  this  feeling  not  from  philosophy  or 


108  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

reasoning  but  from  the  supernatural  acts  and  super- 
natural teaching  contained  in  the  Bible.  One  great 
value  of  all  the  supernatural  acts  recorded  there  is 
precisely  to  impart  that  idea  and  make  it  vivid  and 
real  to  us. 

One  of  the  great  values,  then,  of  all  these  miracles 
recorded  in  the  Bible  is  to  let  us  see  instances  of  God 
doing  things  personally  for  the  sake  of  some  individual, 
in  order  that  we  may  get  the  vivid  feeling  that  it  is 
plausible  to  expect  Him  to  do  such  things  for  us,  and 
so  our  prayers  may  have  reality  in  them  to  us. 

Answers  to  Prayer 

It  ought  not  to  be  necessary  to  pause  particularly  to 
consider  the  customary  objection  that  all  such  answers 
to  prayer  would  be  unreasonable, — that  it  would  be 
unreasonable  for  God  to  depart  from  the  wise  course 
of  events  He  had  originally  planned  and  follow  some 
other  plan  that  we  conceived  and  requested.  Or  that 
it  would  be  unreasonable  for  God  to  have  resort  to  a 
special  act  or  miracle  to  bring  some  good  to  some  one 
whom  He  wished  to  favour,  when  in  His  wisdom  He 
could  just  as  well  have  planned  from  the  beginning 
for  that  benefit  to  come  to  Him  spontaneously  and 
naturally. 

This  objection  quite  mistakes  the  meaning  and  pur- 
pose of  prayer.  The  purpose  of  prayer  is  not  to  enable 
certain  privileged  persons  to  get  some  special  benefits, 
nor  to  enable  them  to  have  the  satisfaction  of  having 
events  transpire  in  accordance  with  their  wisdom  and 
their  wishes. 


PEAYER  109 

The  meaning  and  the  purpose  of  prayer  is  fellow- 
ship with  God.  That  is  what  prayer  is.  That  is  its 
main  and  primary  purpose.  It  is  not  a  means  to  some- 
thing else,  but  is  itself  the  end  and  the  desirable  object, 
and  the  benefits  given  in  answer  are  a  means  to  the 
prayer.  It  is  prayer  itself  as  fellowship  with  God  that 
is  the  valuable  tiling  which  God  desired  to  produce, 
and  the  promise  of  good  things  in  answer  to  the  prayers 
is  merely  a  means  He  employs  to  induce  men  to  engage 
in  the  exercise  of  prayer,  that  is  to  say  to  engage  in 
fellowship  with  Himself. 

Since  all  prayer  to  be  acceptable  must  contain  the 
provision :  "  If  it  be  God's  will,"  we  might  say  that  the 
only  things  God  may  be  expected  to  give  in  answer  to 
prayer  are  things  that  He  considers  to  be  desirable  and 
best,  that  is  to  say  things  that  He  might  otherwise 
have  made  part  of  the  result  that  nature  would  produce 
spontaneously,  but  in  order  to  induce  men  to  engage  in 
the  fellowship  of  prayer  He  planned  that  those  things 
should  be  contingent  on  our  making  a  specific  request 
for  them.  Keally  both  the  prayer  and  the  granting 
the  thing  asked  for  were  contemplated  from  the  be- 
ginning. 

God  from  the  beginning,  in  planning  the  course  of 
nature,  we  may  conceive,  arranged  so  that  certain  de- 
sirable things  should  be  held  back  and  not  produced 
naturally,  in  order  that  He  might  bestow  those  things 
personally  and  specially  as  a  sort  of  bait  to  induce  men 
to  come  and  enter  into  personal  fellowship  with  Him 
in  the  form  of  prayer.  Prayer  is  not  fundamentally  a 
means  to  acquire  certain  good  gifts,  but  the  prayer  it- 


110  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL 

self  is  the  thing  of  chief  value,  and  the  good  gifts  are 
the  means  to  induce  us  to  engage  in  it,  and  thus  have 
fellowship  with  God. 

Now  in  order  to  have  that  effect  we  must  really  be- 
lieve that  God  will  give  personal  favours  to  us  per- 
sonally. And  as  we  have  seen,  the  great  means  to  in- 
spire that  belief  in  us  is  the  sight  of  these  instances  in 
the  Bible  where  God  did  give  special  personal  favours 
to  individuals. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  supernatural  in  the  Bible  is  of 
supreme  value  to  us  in  that  it  makes  possible  to  us  the 
prayer  spirit.  It  makes  valid  and  reasonable  the  whole 
institution  of  prayer,  and  thus  enables  us  to  whole- 
heartedly engage  in  it,  and  in  so  doing  we  enter  into 
the  blessedness  of  fellowship  with  God,  which  is  the 
very  heart  and  essence  of  our  religious  life. 

Intercessory  Prayer 

There  is  another  very  interesting  question  connected 
with  this  subject  of  prayer.  For  we  will  find  that  even 
the  validity  and  reasonableness  of  certain  kinds  of 
prayer  is  quite  dependent  upon  considerations  growing 
out  of  this  matter  of  our  fellowship  with  God. 

If  our  conception  of  the  supernatural  and  of  God's 
personal  attitude  towards  us  is  correct  we  would  be 
able  to  account  for  God's  giving  good  gifts  as  personal 
favours  to  us  in  response  to  our  requests.  But  there 
are  certain  forms  of  prayer  that  still  present  serious 
difficulties,  for  instance,  "Intercessory  Prayer,"  and 
such  petitions  as : — "  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is 
in  heaven."    How  can  we  reasonably  petition  and  ask 


PRAYER  111 

for  something  that  is  not  a  personal  benefit  to  ourselves 
but  merely  is  for  the  improvement  of  the  world,  for  the 
advancement  of  God's  cause  or  for  the  help  of  some 
one  whom  we  pity,— but  whom  we  know  God  pities 
and  wishes  to  help  far  more  than  we  do  ? 

We  are  told,  for  instance,  to  make  intercession  in 
prayer  for  the  suffering  and  needy  around  us,— to  pray 
that  God  would  give  them  the  help  that  they  need. 
Why  should  we  do  so  ?  Does  not  God  know  of  their 
suffering  and  need  ?    Do  we  need  to  inform  Him  ? 

We  say  we  pray  because  we  pity  them  and  therefore 
ask  God  to  help  them.  But  do  we  have  to  persuade 
God  to  help  them  ?  Does  He  not  also  pity  them  far 
more  than  we  do  ?  Will  He  not  want  to  give  them 
the  help  without  our  urging  Him  to  do  so  ?  Are  we 
so  much  better  and  more  sympathetic  than  God  that 
we  have  to  be  touched  with  sympathy  first  and  then 
arouse  Him  to  sympathy  and  help  ? 

We  are  told  to  pray  for  some  one  in  order  to  bring 
down  God's  blessing  upon  him.  Why  ?  Does  not  God 
love  him  and  want  to  bless  him  far  more  than  we  do  ? 
Why  is  it  necessary  for  us  to  pray  and  urge  God  to  do 
something  that  He  specially  wants  to  do  ? 

Especially  is  this  apparent  when  we  pray  for  the 
conversion  of  some  friend,  or  pray  that  he  may  be  kept 
from  going  into  sin.  Does  not  God  want  him  to  be 
converted  and  saved  far  more  than  we  do  ?  Did  not 
Christ  come  from  heaven  and  give  His  life  that  that 
man  might  be  saved  ?  If  God  can  do  anything  more 
to  insure  his  being  saved  will  He  not  surely  do  it  ? 
Why  will  He  be  any  more  apt  to  do  it  after  we  have 


112  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL 

asked  Him  than  before  ?  Why  should  He  wait  for  us 
to  ask  Him  to  do  something  to  effect  a  result  that  from 
the  beginning  He  greatly  desired  and  which  He  has 
already  shown  the  intensity  of  His  desire  for  by  the 
very  great  work  and  suffering  already  gone  through  to 
effect  it  ?  If  there  is  anything  more  He  can  do  will 
He  not  certainly  do  it  without  our  asking,  and  if 
there  is  nothing  more  He  can  do  why  should  we  ask 
Him? 

Or  perhaps  we  can  present  the  difficulty  in  another 
way  by  asking :— How  can  we  justify  God  holding 
back  and  not  doing  certain  good  things  which  He 
might  do,  and  which  would  produce  good  results  in  ac- 
cord with  His  purposes  ? 

For  instance,  our  Christian  teaching  represents  God 
as  desiring  the  salvation  of  men,  planning  for  it  and 
going  to  infinite  expense  to  make  it  possible.  A  little 
special  work  of  His  Holy  Spirit  at  a  certain  time  would 
accomplish  the  desired  result  with  any  given  man  and 
bring  him  to  salvation.  But  God  declines  to  do  that 
little  work,  we  are  told,  till  some  one  prays  and  asks 
Him  to  do  it. 

After  having  already  done  so  infinitely  much  to  ac- 
complish the  result  He  declines  to  do  the  one  little 
thing  that  will  make  it  all  effective  until  some  man 
prays  and  asks  Him  to  do  it,  then  He  does  it.  In  the 
case  of  unnumbered  thousands  He  does  not  do  it  at  all 
just  because  no  one  has  asked  Him  specifically  to  do  it, 
and  so  all  His  great  past  work  goes  for  naught. 

Does  not  this  tend  to  reduce  the  whole  matter  to 
merely  a  sort  of  stage  play  ?    Is  not  this  whole  con- 


PRAYER  113 

ception  a  mistake,  and  is  not  all  such  prayer  unneces- 
sary because  God  will,  without  our  urging,  do  all  that 
He  can  do  for  the  salvation  of  all  men  ? 

One  of  the  most  common  petitions  in  public  prayer 
is  for  the  success  of  Missions  and  the  conversion  of  the 
world.  But  how  can  we  reasonably  justify  a  man 
making  such  a  request?  That  was  the  great  object 
on  Christ's  heart  in  coming  into  the  world.  God  de- 
sires that  far  more  than  we  do.  Is  it  not  impertinence 
for  us  to  urge  Him  to  do  something  for  it  ? 

If  we  were  personally  engaged  in  that  foreign  mis- 
sion work  we  perhaps  might  reasonably  ask  Him  to 
bless  our  own  work  and  make  it  successful.  But  when 
we  ask  for  the  whole  work  in  all  the  world,  with  a 
very  large  part  of  that  work  we  have  not  even  a  re- 
mote connection.  How  then  can  we  without  imperti- 
nence make  a  request  to  God  that  He  would  work 
faster  in  that  work  and  more  quickly  finish  it  ?  He  is 
interested  in  the  hastening  of  it  a  hundred  times  more 
than  we  are.  He  cares  for  the  welfare  of  these  perish- 
ing people  a  hundred  times  more  than  we  do.  If  there 
is  anything  He  can  do  to  hasten  their  conversion  and 
salvation  will  He  not  certainly  do  it  ?  If  He  cannot 
do  anything  more  than  He  is  doing  why  should  we 
keep  asking  Him  to  do  more  ? 

Ouk  Prayer  Makes  the  Thing  Possible 

for  God  to  Do 

The  logic  of  that  reply  is  correct.    "We  must  believe 

that  God  cannot  do  any  more  for  the  salvation  of  the 

world,  or  of  any  individual,  than  He  is  already  doing. 


114  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

To  doubt  that  would  be  to  doubt  the  "  God  so  loved 
the  world." 

We  cannot  ask  Him  to  do  anything  more  than  He 
is  doing  except  on  one  certain  condition.  We  cannot 
ask  Him  to  do  anything  more  in  the  matter  unless  the 
very  fact  of  our  ashing  Him  will  make  it  possible  for 
Him  to  do  something  He  could  not  otherwise  do.  That 
is  a  startling  proposition  to  make  but  it  is  a  proposition 
we  cannot  avoid  if  we  candidly  face  all  the  facts  we 
are  taught  about  God's  love  and  relation  to  men.  God 
cannot  do  certain  things  without  our  prayer,  and  He 
can  do  them  after  we  have  prayed  for  them.  How 
can  this  be  possible  ? 

We  sometimes  use  this  form  of  words  meaning  it 
merely  in  a  hortatory  sense.  We  mean  merely  that  God 
wants  us  to  make  the  request  and  is  voluntarily  delay- 
ing the  gift  or  act  until  we  do  make  it.  But  this  must 
mean  very  much  more  than  that.  For  it  must  be  that 
He  not  only  tentatively  delays  doing  the  things  in 
question  but  that  He  actually  cannot  do  them. 

Here  during  the  past  nineteen  centuries  more  than 
fifty  generations  of  men  have  gone  down  to  death 
without  certain  help  that  we  ask  God  now  to  give. 
Loving  them  deeply,  that  He  did  not  give  them  that 
help  at  any  time  must  surely  have  been  because  He 
could  not.  He  would  have  given  it  if  He  could.  We 
cannot  think  He  delayed  giving  it  and  let  them  all 
go  down  to  death  just  to  hold  up  a  little  inducement 
to-day  to  our  prayer  spirit.  That  would  make  the 
whole  matter  monstrous. 

We  must  either  believe  that  there  is  nothing  more 


PRAYER  115 

possible  for  God  to  do  for  men's  salvation,  or  for  any- 
good  cause,  and  so  our  praying  for  it  is  vain  and  un- 
reasonable, or  we  must  believe  that  our  praying  for  a 
thing  may  make  it  possible  for  God  to  do  something 
that  it  was  not  possible  for  Him  to  do  before.  How 
can  such  a  thing  be  ? 

We  must  turn  to  science  for  the  solution  of  this 
fundamental  enigma  of  prayer. 

Immutability  of  Natural  Law 
The  one  thing  that  science  most  insistently  teaches 
us  is  the  immutability  of  natural  law.  Science  asserts 
this  as  an  empirical  induction,  and  philosophy  and 
theology  put  the  same  truth  on  the  firm  foundation  of 
God's  infinite  knowledge  and  competence.  God  knew 
what  the  world  would  become  when  He  created  and 
constituted  all  things,  so  He  did  it  knowingly.  If  He 
had  wanted  anything  to  be  different  He  could  and 
would  have  made  provision  for  it  at  that  time.  Hav- 
ing made  what  He  wanted  to  make  He  has  no  inclina- 
tion or  design  to  interfere  to  change  any  part  of  its 
working.  The  great  system  of  natural  law  is  the 
system  God  ordained  for  this  world.  It  is  His  will 
that  that  system  should  have  unhindered  right  of  way. 
True  this  view  leaves  many  problems  difficult  to 
reconcile.  There  is  evil  in  the  world  and  suffering 
and  failure.  There  are  many  things  we  wish  were 
different  and  much  we  long  to  see  improved.  Still 
perhaps  if  we  had  infinite  wisdom  we  might  be  able 
to  see  that  the  world,  on  the  whole  and  in  connection 
with  the  interests  of  the  whole  universe,  is  really  being 


116  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

conducted  in  the  best  possible  manner  after  all.  Or 
we  might  see  that  for  God  to  interfere  for  the  purpose 
of  changing  His  original  plan  or  making  anything  work 
differently  from  what  the  original  plan  would  effect, 
would  be  the  cause  of  far  more  evil  than  the  good  pro- 
duced. 

But  whether  we  can  fully  explain  and  justify  it  or 
not,  the  fact  remains.  Natural  law  is  of  God  and  He 
respects  it.  He  ordained  the  world  to  be  governed  by 
the  system  of  natural  law  which  He  constituted  for  it, 
and  He  will  never  discredit  or  repudiate  that  first  ar- 
rangement which  He  ordained. 

We  must  accept,  then,  fully  and  absolutely  this  teach- 
ing of  both  science  and  theology,  that  the  laws  of  na- 
ture are  inviolable, — that  God  never  will  intrude  or 
interfere  directly  for  the  purpose  of  doing  anything  for 
the  bettering  of  the  world,  since  that  is  the  province  of 
those  laws.  And  to  say  that  He  will  not  is  the  same 
as  saying  He  cannot.  That  motive  and  purpose  can 
never  lead  Him  to  do  any  present  special  and  personal 
or  supernatural  act. 

This  is  the  only  tenable  ground  on  which  we  can 
stand  with  regard  to  God  as  the  creator  and  governor 
of  the  world.  And  it  is  precisely  from  that  standpoint 
that  we  first  become  able  to  understand  the  need  and 
the  legitimacy  of  intercessory  prayer.  From  that 
standpoint  it  all  becomes  quite  plain  and  logical. 

From  that  standpoint  we  can  see  on  the  one  hand 
why  it  is  that  God  does  not  do  various  things  to  insure 
the  improvement  of  certain  people.  He  will  not  inter- 
fere with  the  world  that  He  has  made.     It  is  the  set/ 


PEAYEE  117 

tied  determination  of  His  will  that  nature, — the  world 
as  He  constituted  it, — must  run  its  course  unhelped  and 
uninterfered  with.  God  never  will  do  anything  special 
for  the  purpose  of  making  the  world  or  any  person  bet- 
ter. To  do  so  would  be  just  as  contrary  to  His  fixed 
purpose  as  to  arbitrarily  change  the  orbit  of  a  sun  or 
blot  out  a  world  and  make  it  over  again.  We  can 
thus  see  that  God  cannot  normally  do  any  of  these 
things  that  we  are  asking  Him  to  do  in  intercessory 
prayer. 

The  question  then  to  solve  is : — How  is  it  possible  for 
Him  on  the  other  hand  to  do  them  after  we  have 
prayed  for  them  if  it  was  impossible  for  Him  to  do 
them  before  ?  The  answer  to  this  lies  right  along  the 
line  of  this  one  great  topic  which  we  have  been  dis- 
cussing. 

Doing  a  Thing  Asked  for  Becomes  a  Matter 
of  Fellowship 

We  have  seen  that  God  does  do  special  acts  as  acts 
of  fellowship.  He  will  do  special  acts  for  the  sake  of 
kindness  or  fellowship  with  some  man,  though  He 
never  would  do  such  acts  for  a  merely  utilitarian  pur- 
pose. Here  is  a  project,  let  us  suppose,  that  would  re- 
quire a  special  act  of  God.  Merely  for  utilitarian 
reasons  He  never  would  set  aside  natural  law  and  do 
that  act.  But  some  friend  of  God  asks  Him  to  do  that 
act  as  a  favour  to  him  because  it  will  give  him  happi- 
ness. It  has  now  become  a  matter  of  personal  favour 
and  fellowship  between  God  and  that  man.  So  God 
does  that  act  as  an  act  of  favour  and  fellowship  to  that 


118  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

man.  He  does  not  do  it  to  make  the  world  better  or 
for  any  utilitarian  benefit  but  solely  to  give  pleasure 
and  show  friendship  to  that  man,  His  friend,  even 
though  it  does  incidentally  serve  some  utilitarian  pur- 
pose. 

Fellowship  with  men  is  a  motive  for  which  God  con- 
siders it  proper  to  do  special  acts.  As  we  have  seen, 
that  is  one  of  the  distinct  designs  of  God,  looked  for- 
ward to  and  prepared  for  by  all  nature  and  the  evolu- 
tion process.  God  might  do  from  that  motive  acts 
whose  results  or  by-products  would  make  the  world 
better,  even  though  He  never  would  have  done  those 
acts  merely  to  make  the  world  better  as  their  main 
purpose.  He  could  do  acts  if  they  were  done  as  acts 
of  fellowship  which  He  never  would  have  done  for  any 
other  reason. 

Answer  to  prayer  is  an  act  of  fellowship,  and  there- 
fore it  is  a  motive  for  which  God  would  consider  it 
proper  and  possible  to  do  special  acts.  God  might,  for 
the  purpose  of  answering  the  prayers  of  persons  that 
were  living  in  close  fellowship  with  Him,  do  any  act 
He  chose,  because  it  would  be  an  act  of  fellowship. 
The  act  might  make  the  world  better  or  convert  some 
man,  but  yet  it  is  not  done  primarily  for  that  purpose. 
It  is  done  as  an  act  of  fellowship  to  the  man  who  re- 
quested it,  to  show  kindness  to  him  and  make  him  feel 
that  God  is  his  friend.  That  is  its  main  purpose,  and 
the  benefit  to  the  world  or  to  the  other  individual  is 
merely  a  by-product  or  secondary  result. 

Of  course  the  only  sense  in  which  we  could  say  that 
God  could  not  do  any  act  would  be  the  sense  that  there 


PEAYEE  119 

was  no  adequate  motive  for  doing  it.  The  motive  to 
make  the  world  better  would  not  be  a  legitimate  one 
that  could  apply  at  all.  Doing  a  special  act  primarily 
for  that  purpose  is  not  in  accordance  with  His  will. 
But  if  doing  a  certain  act  would  become  an  act  of  fel- 
lowship to  some  man  then  that  would  be  a  legitimate 
motive  to  do  that  act,  and  God  could  do  it  where  He 
could  not  do  it  before.  He  might  freely  do  from  one 
motive  an  act  which  He  would  not  do  from  another 
motive.  The  act  acquires  a  different  character.  It  be- 
comes a  different  matter  with  quite  different  implica- 
tions. 

To  make  a  very  humble  analogy : — A  sick  nurse  on 
duty  must  not  for  her  own  pleasure  spend  her  time 
playing  games  or  driving  in  the  park.  But  if  it  were 
done  for  the  benefit  of  her  convalescing  patient  then  it 
would  be  quite  proper  for  her  to  do  it,  even  though  she 
herself  also  would  get  pleasure  from  it. 

Just  so  the  exigencies  of  the  world's  progress  might 
seem  to  call  upon  God  to  do  certain  things.  But  He 
could  not  comply  and  do  them  for  that  purpose  any 
more  than  the  nurse  might  play  to  amuse  herself.  It 
would  be  contrary  to  established  law  to  do  so, — in  both 
cases  alike.  But  suppose  a  man  in  close,  loving  fellow- 
ship with  God  asks  Him  to  do  those  same  things  as  a 
favour  to  him  because  it  would  give  him  pleasure. 
The  fact  of  this  man  having  asked  in  that  way  makes 
the  doing  of  those  things  a  matter  of  kindness  and  fel- 
lowship with  him.  God  therefore  might  freely  do 
those  things  for  that  purpose,  even  though  it  did  bring 
the  result  that  the  exigencies  of  the  world's  progress 


120  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

called  for  and  though  He  could  not  do  them  primarily 
for  the  world's  progress. 

Yery  possibly  all  the  above  may  seem  to  some  to  be 
merely  a  piece  of  speculation  and  casuistry.  Still  as 
long  as  opponents  insist  on  making  these  speculative 
objections  to  prayer  it  is  well  to  be  able  to  meet  them 
and  show  that  we  are  logical  and  sound.  It  is  plain 
that  in  this  way  we  do  have  a  complete  and  satisfactory 
answer  to  this  problem  of  intercessory  prayer.  We 
can  see  how  it  is  not  merely  a  figure  of  speech  but  a 
real  fact  that  there  are  things  which  God  cannot  do 
before  we  have  prayed  for  them  which  He  can  do  when 
we  have  asked  Him  to  do  them,  and  our  praying  for 
them  actually  enables  Him  to  do  them.  Our  praying 
for  a  certain  thing  makes  God's  doing  that  thing 
become  a  favour  to  us.  It  makes  it  become  an  act  of 
fellowship,  for  it  is  an  answer  to  a  request,  and  thus  is 
a  purely  fellowship  act.  God  can  do  that  thing  as  an 
act  of  fellowship,  though  He  could  not  have  done  it 
otherwise. 

Of  course  it  is  quite  possible  in  fellowship  to  do 
favours  that  have  not  been  specifically  asked  for.  Yet 
they  must  be  things  that  are  specifically  desired  or 
they  are  not  favours  and  it  is  not  fellowship.  All  our 
desires  should  be  lifted  up  to  God  in  the  form  of 
requests  and  petitions.  That  is  God's  design  in  the 
whole  institution  of  prayer,  and  we  are  explicitly 
directed  to  do  so  (cf .  Phil.  4 :  6,  etc.).  And  so  it  is  quite 
logical  if  He  should  have  it  fixed  that  the  favour 
would  not  be  granted  till  the  request  was  actually 
made. 


PRAYER  121 

Illustrations 

We  may  illustrate  the  matter  with  some  concrete 
examples.  A  ship  is  in  a  great  storm  on  the  Mediter- 
ranean Sea  (Acts  27  :  14  ff.).  In  the  ship  are  two  hun- 
dred and  seventy-five  men,  paralyzed  with  fear  and 
looking  for  certain  death.  God  knows  their  danger 
and  terror,  and  He  pities  them.  He  has  also  known  of 
countless  other  cases  of  terror  and  suffering  both  before 
and  since  then,  which  He  did  not  help.  He  has  pitied 
them  and  suffered  in  sympathy  with  all  these  sufferers, 
but  by  the  wise  determination  of  His  own  will  He  has 
made  it  impossible  for  Himself  to  in  any  way  intervene 
for  their  relief.  He  counts  it  necessary  that  nature 
should  freely  run  its  course,  and  so  He  has  had  to  leave 
them  all  to  the  free  operations  of  nature. 

But  there  was  one  man  in  that  ship,  the  Apostle  Paul, 
who  had  long  been  in  a  relation  of  intimate  personal 
fellowship  with  God.  Paul,  with  the  confidence  of  a 
friend,  was  asking  and  looking  to  God  for  the  safety  of 
his  life,  and  also  for  the  safety  of  all  these  others  "  that 
journeyed  with  him." 

This  made  the  matter  of  saving  the  people  in  that 
ship  a  matter  of  personal  favour  to  Paul,  God's  friend. 
It  was  now  no  longer  a  matter  of  interfering  with 
natural  law  to  save  some  lives,  but  a  matter  of  fellow- 
ship with  a  friend,  which  is  emphatically  in  accord 
with  natural  law.  And  so  God  could  and  did  do  it. 
He  did  it  for  Paul's  sake,  not  for  the  sake  of  the  two 
hundred  and  seventy-five  others.  He  did  it  to  be 
friendly  to  Paul,  not  primarily  to  save  their  lives, 
though  it  did  save  their  lives. 


122  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

King  Hezekiah  was  attacked  in  his  capital  city  Jeru- 
salem (2  Kings  18  :  13-19:  35)  The  mighty  Assyrian 
army  was  near  at  hand,  both  able  and  eager  to  destroy 
the  city  and  forever  blot  out  the  Jewish  nation  as  it 
already  had  the  tribes  of  Israel  to  the  north. 

The  nation  of  the  Jews  has  played  an  important  part 
in  the  history  of  civilization,  and  their  destruction  at 
this  time  might  have  delayed  for  centuries  the  progress 
of  the  world.  But  we  cannot  conceive  of  God  on  that 
account  intervening  to  save  the  nation,  and  for  that 
reason.  It  would  be  violating  natural  law.  To  do 
so  would  be  to  confess  incompetency  in  His  original 
constitution  of  things,  and  to  admit  that  He  had  not 
been  able  to  arrange  for  progress  to  go  on  spontane- 
ously quite  as  fast  as  He  would  like  to  have  it. 

But  there  was  another  factor  in  the  situation. 
Hezekiah  had  been  for  a  long  while  walking  in  spe- 
cially loyal,  trustful  fellowship  with  God.  It  was 
entirely  in  accord  with  both  the  great  world  plan  and 
God's  will  for  God  to  carry  on  the  fellowship  with 
Hezekiah  by  granting  him  favours  that  he  asked. 
Hezekiah  asked  for  deliverance  from  this  enemy,  and 
God  granted  it  to  him  as  &  favour  to  him.  Thereby  the 
nation  of  the  Jews  with  its  enormous  value  for  the 
world's  betterment  was  preserved  though  that  was  only 
a  by-product. 

Doubtless  Hezekiah's  motives  were  not  altogether 
selfish.     He    may  have  desired  the  deliverance   not 
altogether  or  chiefly  for  his  own  safety.     He  may 
have  loved  his  nation  and  desired  to  see  it  safe.     He 
may  have  foreseen  how  much  his  nation  would  con- 


PRAYER  123 

tribute  to  the  progress  of  the  world  and  have  desired 
that.  These  and  other  things  may  have  entered  into 
the  cause  of  his  desire,  but  it  was  his  desire,  and  God 
granted  it,  not  because  of  the  benefit  to  the  nation  or 
to  the  world,  but  because  it  was  the  request  and  desire 
of  Hezekiah,  His  friend. 

That  is  the  only  reason  that  could  justify  God  inter- 
fering by  such  a  personal  interposition.  For  we  are 
assuming  for  the  sake  of  the  illustration  that  it  was  a 
supernatural  or  personal  interposition  of  God  that 
brought  the  deliverance  in  both  these  cases.  He  sent 
the  special  deliverance  solely  because  it  was  the  request 
and  desire  of  His  friend,  and  He  could  not  have  done  it 
otherwise. 

Let  us  again  suppose,  for  instance,  that  the  vast  and 
venerable  nation  of  China  were  in  the  throes  of  a  great 
agitation.  Will  it  issue  in  disaster  or  in  reformation 
and  advancement  ?  The  question  comes  up  of  praying 
to  God  to  exert  influence  to  avoid  disaster  and  lead  to 
good  results.  If  God  were  to  specially  exert  some 
influence  upon  the  minds  of  certain  men  or  do  some 
other  special  thing,  the  disaster  would  be  averted  and 
good  results  ensue. 

But  without  our  prayer  or  any  other  consideration 
to  justify  it,  it  would  be  unreasonable  to  suppose  that 
God  would  ever  do  a  special  act  for  that  purpose.  It 
would  be  interfering  with  natural  law.  The  great 
nation  of  China  was  moving  and  would  move  just  as 
He  in  the  beginning  had  provided  that  it  should  move. 
To  interfere  by  a  special  act  now  to  improve  something 
or  prevent  some  result  that  would  have  naturally  en- 


124  THE  SUPEBNATUKAL 

sued  would  be  to  declare  His  first  provision  inade- 
quate. 

But  you  have  desired  and  prayed  to  God  for  the  sal- 
vation of  China.  Simply  as  an  act  of  favour  to  you 
He  might  legitimately  do  the  thing  that  would  turn 
the  tide  towards  China's  uplift,  just  as  He  might  do 
any  other  thing  you  desired  as  an  act  of  favour  to  you. 
It  would  all  be  purely  a  personal  matter  of  favour  to  you. 

"Whether  so  great  an  act  as  that  would  not  be  quite 
out  of  proportion  to  your  importance  and  unseemly 
as  a  favour  to  you,  is  another  question.  But  if  God 
thought  it  a  suitable  favour  to  give  to  you  it  would  be 
entirely  in  accord  with  His  established  ways  of  work- 
ing to  do  so. 

As  an  act  of  fellowship  and  favour  to  you  He  might 
comfort  your  mind,  He  might  cure  your  sickness,  He 
might  make  your  enterprises  prosperous.  All  these 
would  be  recognized  as  appropriate  acts  of  favour  to 
be  granted  for  fellowship's  sake.  And  equally  as  a 
favour  to  you,  if  you  desired  it  and  it  would  be  a  real 
favour  to  you,  He  might  bring  influences  to  bear  that 
would  result  in  the  conversion  of  your  friend,  the 
uplift  of  your  community,  the  salvation  of  China,  or 
any  other  good  thing  whatsoever, — only  provided  it 
was  a  thing  you  desired  and  the  doing  of  it  would  be  a 
specific  favour  to  you. 

That  He  should  do  such  things  merely  to  make  the 
world  better,  because  it  was  not  getting  better  as  fast 
as  He  wished,  would  be  unreasonable,  and  would  stamp 
His  original  creation  act  as  inadequate.  But  that  He 
should  do  any  kind  of  personal  favours  for  fellowship's 


PRAYER  125 

sake  is  an  entirely  different  thing.  It  is  no  reflection 
on  the  adequacy  of  the  original  creation  for  Him  to  do 
any  kind  of  favours  whatsoever  as  favours.  This  was 
contemplated  and  provided  for  in  that  original  creation 
system, — indeed  we  might  almost  say  it  was  one  of  the 
main  purposes  of  that  creation. 

Thus  we  see  that  prayer  is  a  reality.  It  is  a  real 
power.  It  is  not  merely  a  ceremony  pleasing  to  God, 
a  spiritual  exercise,  a  devotion.  It  is  one  of  the  real 
powers  and  efficiencies  of  the  universe,  just  as  much  so 
as  electricity  or  gravitation.  It  is  something  that  has 
power  to  bring  about  results  that  could  not  have  come 
about  without  it  any  more  than  planets  could  revolve 
without  gravitation  or  flowers  bloom  without  sunlight. 
It  is  in  fact,  as  it  has  often  been  called,  a  lever  that  can 
move  the  world,  for  it  can  enlist  and  open  the  way  for 
the  infinite  power  of  God. 

Not  the  new,  attenuated  definition  of  Spiritual  Calis- 
thenics, but  the  old  conception  of  "Wrestling  with 
God  "  is  the  definition  of  prayer  that  most  nearly  fills 
the  requirements  of  our  modern  science. 

Laws  of  Peayer 

If  this  is  the  meaning  and  the  value  of  prayer  we 
can  determine  to  some  extent  the  laws  that  will  govern 
the  answers  to  prayer.  The  whole  matter  must  be 
subject  to  the  laws  that  apply  to  ordinary  friendly  fel- 
lowship. 

With  one  of  the  parties  to  the  friendship  so  infinitely 
great  it  may  seem  venturesome  to  compare  it  with  our 
ordinary  friendships,  and  yet  what  God  does  is  per- 


126  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

feet, — perfect  in  its  minuteness  as  well  as  in  its  com- 
pleteness. If  He  deigns  to  grant  friendship  and  fellow- 
ship at  all  we  may  be  sure  it  will  be  in  no  way  less 
companionable  and  sincere  than  the  most  perfect  of  our 
human  friendships  and  fellowships. 

We  are  considering  now  only  the  granting  of  favours 
for  fellowship's  sake.  In  the  first  place  the  prayer  must 
be  a  sincere  expression  of  a  real  desire,  or  there  is  no 
reason  at  all  to  expect  the  request  to  be  granted  and  the 
thing  given.  When  friend  talks  with  friend  we  often  in 
ordinary  fellowship  say  a  great  many  things  merely  for 
form's  sake,  for  politeness  and  because  it  is  customary 
to  say  or  ask  those  things  under  the  circumstances.  If 
the  friend  is  accustomed  to  the  ways  of  the  world  he 
understands  that  perfectly,  and  pays  no  particular  at- 
tention to  those  requests,  except  to  count  them  at  their 
true  value  as  merely  polite  talk. 

A  pretty  large  part  of  the  prayers  of  all  Christians 
can  be  blocked  out  entirely  under  that  head.  Doubt- 
less God  is  not  offended  but  possibly  pleased  to  have  us 
be  polite  towards  Him  and  say  or  ask  things  just  to  be 
social.  But  we  surely  must  concede  Him  as  much  dis- 
crimination as  our  ordinary  friends  have. 

We  may  fix,  then,  as  the  first  rule,  that  the  value  of 
any  petition  to  bring  an  answering  favour  depends  in 
the  first  place  on  the  strength  of  the  real  desire  for  that 
specific  thing.  If  you  pray  for  the  reformation  of 
China  or  the  conversion  of  your  friend,  the  only  effi- 
ciency in  your  petition  will  grow  out  of  the  amount  of 
real  desire  in  your  heart  for  those  objects. 

It  will  not  be  governed  by  the  fervency  or  the  ur- 


PRAYER  127 

gency  with  which  you  make  the  petition.  It  will  not 
be  governed  by  the  intrinsic  goodness  and  desirableness 
of  the  thing  asked  for.  The  only  factor  that  will  have 
value  will  be  the  degree  of  desire  you  have  for  that 
thing, — the  degree  in  which  its  granting  would  be  a 
personal  favour  to  you. 

It  may  be  that  the  reformation  of  China  would  be  a 
grand  good  thing  and  would  bring  benefit  and  happi- 
ness to  millions  of  people.  But  you  have  no  right  to 
advise  God  to  do  it  on  that  account.  But  if  it  will  give 
real  pleasure  to  you  personally,  then,  because  God  is 
your  friend  you  can  frankly  and  confidingly  ask  Him 
to  bring  it  about,  and  just  in  the  degree  that  it  will 
cause  you  personally  real  happiness  He  will  be  disposed 
to  do  it  in  response  to  your  request. 

Of  course  we  suppose  it  gives  you  pleasure  because 
of  the  pleasure  and  happiness  it  would  give  to  these 
millions  of  other  people,  and  your  heart  goes  out  in 
sympathy  to  them.  But  we  need  not  go  into  that 
phase  of  the  question  now.  The  point  is  that  all  the 
value  your  prayer  has  in  the  case  is  the  amount  of 
personal  favour  the  result  would  be  to  you,  for  what- 
ever God  does  in  the  matter  in  answer  He  is  going  to 
do  solely  as  a  favour  to  you. 

This  seems  an  extremely  strange  statement  to  make, 
but  we  have  seen  that  there  is  no  other  ground  on 
which  God  could  do  such  things  without  throwing  dis- 
credit on  His  original  creation.  He  could  only  do 
such  things  on  the  ground  of  friendship  and  fellowship 
for  some  one. 

The  second  rule  is  that  God  will  act  in  the  case  in 


128  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

the  capacity  of  Friend,  not  of  servant  or  agent  or  in- 
strument or  anything  of  that  kind.  When  friend 
makes  a  request  of  friend  that  friend  is  entirely  free 
as  to  whether  he  shall  grant  it  or  not,  otherwise  it  is 
not  a  matter  of  friendship  but  something  else.  But  on 
the  other  hand  the  whole  force  of  his  friendship  will 
impel  him  to  do  that  thing  as  far  as  it  is  feasible. 
And  just  in  proportion  to  the  strength  of  the  friend- 
ship between  the  two  persons  will  the  request  be 
likely  to  be  granted,  other  things  being  equal. 

So  on  the  one  hand  it  will  be  no  reflection  on  the 
validity  of  prayer  if  the  requests  are  not  granted  in 
any  case  or  in  any  number  of  cases,  even  cases  that 
seem  in  the  highest  degree  deserving.  For  the  friend 
must  be  entirely  free  if  it  is  to  be  really  an  act  of 
friendship. 

But  on  the  other  hand  the  whole  force  of  the  bond 
of  friendship  between  us  and  God  will  impel  Him  to 
do  the  thing  desired.  And  we  may  assume  that  the 
more  strong  and  intimate  that  bond  of  friendship  be- 
comes the  more  result  there  will  be  from  our  prayers. 
The  efficiency  of  our  prayers  will  not  be  measured  by 
such  things  as  our  ability  and  earnestness  in  service  or 
even  our  holiness,  except  as  they  are  an  index  of  the 
strength  of  our  personal  bond  of  friendship  with  God. 


YIII 
PUNISHMENT 

WHAT  about  the  severe  and  sterner  parts  of 
the  Bible  ?  There  are  many  cases  of  threat- 
ening, punishment  and  destruction  recorded 
there,  especially  in  the  Old  Testament.  If  we  claim 
that  the  supernatural  and  all  the  movement  of  the 
Bible  is  an  enterprise  by  God  to  draw  men  into  fellow- 
ship with  Himself  by  giving  friendly,  companionable 
treatment  to  them,  does  not  this  contradict  that  claim  ? 
Fellowship  should  consist  on  His  part  in  favours,  friendly 
companionship  and  conversation.  Sending  suffering, 
punishment  and  destruction  seems  more  like  the  office 
of  a  stern  judge  and  moral  ruler.  Is  not  that  the  atti- 
tude in  which  God  most  characteristically  stands,  at 
least  in  the  Old  Testament  ? 

Certainly  that  seems  to  be  the  popular  impression 
and  men  contrast  the  loving  Saviour  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment with  the  stern,  just  judge  and  sovereign  ruler, 
God,  of  the  Old  Testament.  Even  though  they  con- 
sider it  all  the  same  God,  and  the  representations  con- 
sistent, they  consider  that  the  New  Testament  is  in- 
tended to  exhibit  the  loving,  forgiving  side  of  His  nature, 
and  the  specific  province  of  the  Old  Testament  was  to 
prepare  us  for  this  by  first  teaching  us  His  inflexible 
justice,  wrath  and  punishment  of  sin. 

129 


130  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

But  we  are  assuming  here  that  religion  is  fellowship 
with  God,  and  that  all  God's  movements  of  a  personal 
nature  recorded  in  the  Bible  have  that  for  their  object, 
namely,  to  win  men  into  fellowship.  The  purpose  to 
give  fellowship  is  the  only  motive  that  could  justify 
supernatural  or  personal  acts  and  teaching.  All  the 
supernatural  acts  and  teaching  of  God  in  the  Bible, 
then,  must  be  done  as  acts  of  fellowship. 

Here  seems  to  be  a  contradiction.  How  are  we  to 
reconcile  these  two  conceptions  ?  Or  is  that  popular 
conception  really  a  mistaken  one  ?  Is  it  possible  that 
we  may  find  that  after  all  the  movement  of  God  in  the 
Old  Testament  no  less  than  in  the  New  is  a  movement 
entirely  of  favour,  kindness  and  helpfulness,  and  all  of 
it  such  that  it  can  be  properly  considered  a  contribution 
of  Divine  Fellowship  ? 

Manufactuke  and  Use 
In  order  to  determine  this  question  we  must  take  a 
somewhat  broad  and  analytic  view  of  God's  various 
kinds  of  activities. 

We  say  that  evolution  and  nature  is  all  ultimately 
God's  activity.  It  is  His  activity  as  Creator.  It  is 
His  enterprise  of  making  things.  It  is  His  great 
manufactory  in  which  He  is  manufacturing  all  things, 
including  man.  This  is  God's  process  of  manufac- 
turing man.  Now  we  shall  see  presently  that  all  pun- 
ishment belongs  in  and  is  part  of  this  manufacturing 
process. 

But  things  are  usually  manufactured  to  be  used. 
God  manufactured  man  to  use  him,  and  one  main  use 


PUNISHMENT  131 

was  for  the  purpose  of  engaging  in  fellowship  with 
him.  The  manufacturing  and  the  using  are  two  dis- 
tinct things.  The  manufacturing  is  ordinary  nature. 
The  using  is  fellowship,  and  includes  all  the  super- 
natural of  the  Bible.     It  is  religion. 

It  may  be  the  same  person  that  manufactures  that 
also  uses.  Also  He  may  begin  to  use  the  thing  before 
the  manufacturing  process  is  entirely  completed.  But 
yet  the  manufacturing  and  the  using  are  clearly  dis- 
tinct things.  We  must  consider  them  just  as  separate 
as  though  it  was  a  different  person  using  the  thing  from 
the  person  who  was  manufacturing  it. 

If  we  will  keep  this  distinction  clearly  in  mind  the 
whole  matter  will  clear  itself  up.  For  we  will  find  that 
the  great  bulk  of  the  punishments  and  judgments  por- 
trayed in  the  Old  Testament  are  not  things  that  are  a 
part  of  the  fellowship  movement  at  all.  They  are  not 
supernatural  facts  or  supernatural  acts.  They  are  things 
that  came  about  in  the  natural  way  by  natural  law. 
They  are  merely  facts  predicted  or  referred  to  in  God's 
conversations  or  messages,  just  as  He  might  refer  to 
any  other  conspicuous  and  important  things. 

Eeally  in  these  stern  severe  incidents  the  supernat- 
ural feature  is  merely  the  fact  of  God  giving  the  con- 
versations and  messages, — the  fact  of  His  speaking  to 
men  about  these  things.  That  is  distinctly  a  matter 
of  kindness  and  friendliness.  That  is  an  appropriate 
method  of  fellowship,  even  though  the  things  thus 
supernaturally  spoken  of  may  be  severe  and  painful 
facts. 

These  severe  and  painful  things  spoken  of  are  not 


132  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

themselves  parts  of  the  fellowship.  They  are  merely 
the  subjects  of  the  conversation.  In  themselves  they 
are  part  of  the  manufacturing  process.  They  belong 
to  that  department  of  God's  activity.  For  they  are 
things  which  when  they  do  take  place  take  place  en- 
tirely by  the  course  of  natural  law. 

In  the  few  cases  where  a  punishment  did  come  by  a 
supernatural  act  we  shall  see  that  really  some  other 
purpose  was  the  main,  fundamental  motive  of  the  act, 
and  the  punishment  was  merely  a  means  to  effect  that 
purpose,  or  a  result  from  it  (cf .  Chapter  VIII,  pp.  258  ff.). 

Punishment  All  Belongs  to  Natueal  Law 
This  manufacturing  process,  commonly  called  na- 
ture or  evolution,  is  strictly  and  essentially  a  reign  of 
law.  Law  is  one  of  the  most  important  features  of  its 
apparatus.  In  the  mechanical  and  chemical  sphere  the 
law  is  compulsory  and  effectively  produces  the  results. 
In  the  sphere  of  life,  which  in  its  very  essence  implies 
some  degree  of  free  will,  law  does  not  absolutely  com- 
pel, but  visits  some  evil  on  the  individual  that  does  not 
conform.  This  is  equally  true  of  all  the  various  func- 
tions of  life, — the  merely  physical  ones  such  as  growth, 
reproduction  and  action,  also  the  mental  ones  such  as 
memory,  reason,  invention,  as  well  as  the  sphere  of 
ethics,  character  and  duty.  In  this  last  sphere  we  call 
it  punishment. 

All  this  reign  of  law  is  part  of  the  order  of  things 
established  and  provided  for  in  the  first  institution  of 
nature  at  creation.  It  is  all  provided  for  in  the  one 
great  manufacturing  system  that  punishment  or  penalty 


PUNISHMENT  133 

must  follow  everything  that  is  not  according  to  the 
law's  standard.  In  all  the  greater  part  of  the  process 
we  can  see  that  the  penalty  automatically  follows  the 
collision  with  the  law.  We  can  see  this  in  the  physical 
sphere,  the  natural  mental  sphere,  and  to  some  extent 
we  can  see  it  in  the  ethical  sphere  also. 

It  is  true  that  to  a  certain  extent  in  the  ethical 
sphere  it  is  not  so  apparent.  We  cannot  so  clearly  see 
that  punishment  there  always  automatically  follows 
breach  of  law.  And  yet  we  feel  compelled  to  believe 
that  in  some  way  it  does  do  so,  and  that  it  must  all  be 
as  fully  and  as  naturally  provided  for  there  as  else- 
where. The  punishment  in  this  sphere  as  in  all  the 
others  is  intrinsically  a  part  of  the  apparatus  of  the 
manufacturing  process,  for  its  purpose  is  the  elevation 
and  discipline  of  character.  We  feel  that  certainly  not 
some  but  all  of  that  apparatus  must  have  been  provided 
for  along  with  everything  else  necessary,  in  instituting 
the  great  evolution  process.  It  is  hard  to  believe  that 
there  should  have  been  some  little  minor  inadequacy 
that  had  to  be  personally  provided  for  from  time  to 
time. 

In  saying  this  we  do  not  mean  at  all  to  imply  that 
the  punishment  of  sin  must  necessarily  and  always  be 
an  automatic  result  of  the  sin  itself.  It  may  or  may  not 
be  so.  It  may  be  a  distinct  volition  and  impulse  of 
God  at  the  time  for  each  person.  But  for  all  we 
know  gravitation  or  electricity  may  be  so  too, — a  dis- 
tinct volition  and  present  impulse  of  God  in  every  case 
of  activity.  There  are  some  theorists  that  claim  that 
it  is.    We  know  nothing  whatever  on  that  subject. 


134  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL 

We  must  leave  that  phase  entirely  out  of  our  consider- 
ation. 

What  we  must  believe,  however,  is  that  God  in  the 
beginning  instituted  a  great  manufacturing  system 
complete  in  every  respect,  with  full  and  appropriate 
provision  so  that  suns  should  attract  each  other,  elec- 
tricity should  flow,  and  sin  should  be  followed  by  pun- 
ishment. It  was  all  equally  and  fully  arranged  and 
provided  for  some  way  from  the  beginning  as  all  one 
unified  system.  It  was  the  one  fully  endowed  manu- 
factory and  this  is  all  the  process  of  manufacture. 

If  then  this  is  the  manufacturing  process  and  all  fully 
provided  for,  we  cannot  conceive  of  God  doing  any 
present  supernatural  act  primarily  for  its  sake.  Just  as 
we  cannot  conceive  of  God  doing  a  supernatural  act 
primarily  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  or  improving  the 
world,  so  equally  we  cannot  conceive  of  His  doing  a 
supernatural  act  primarily  for  the  purpose  of  punishing, 
for  that  too  is  part  of  the  manufacturing  process  which 
He  provided  fully  for  by  natural  law.  All  punishment 
must  find  its  means  within  the  evolution  system,  in  nat- 
ural law.  Any  supernatural  act  by  God  primarily  for 
the  purpose  of  punishment  would  therefore  be  excluded. 
If  we  should  find  any  such  acts  in  the  Bible  we  must 
frankly  say  we  do  not  know  any  way  to  justify  or  ac- 
count for  them. 

But  is  this  so  ?  Is  infliction  of  punishment,  then,  no 
part  of  religion  ?  Is  it  true  that  supernatural  acts  in 
the  Bible  were  never  performed  for  the  sake  of  punish- 
ment ?  Doubtless  this  is  quite  the  opposite  of  the  pop- 
ular conception  on  the  subject.     It  seems  to  be  a  very 


PUNISHMENT  135 

common  popular  conception  that  punishment  is  one  of 
the  most  prominent  and  fundamental  factors  of  the 
Christian  religion. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  it  has  been  so  used  in  the 
past  by  Christian  teachers.  The  doctrine  of  future 
punishment  has  been  much  used  as  a  compelling  in- 
centive to  lead  men  to  a  religious  life.  Much  of  the  re- 
volt against  religion  in  recent  years  has  really  grown 
out  of  a  revolt  against  this  supposed  feature  of  it.  The 
antagonism  has  been  largely  aroused  by  this  doctrine 
and  its  supposed  implications. 

In  many  minds  there  has  seemed  almost  to  be  the 
crude  conception  that  God  had  specially  organized  all 
this  system  of  future  punishment  directly  to  force  men 
to  accept  a  position  of  submission  to  Him,  and  to  coerce 
them  into  offering  Him  the  worship  which  He  desired 
to  receive.  This  was  what  the  whole  system  of  religion 
seemed  to  be  in  their  minds,  and  they  rebelled  against  it. 
In  more  educated  circles  the  revolt  took  the  form  of 
an  entire  denial  of  the  reality  of  future  punishment. 
Unfortunately  for  this  view  it  is  contrary  to  the  anal- 
ogy of  all  nature.  There  is  nothing  in  nature  or  evolu- 
tion that  gives  any  ground  of  hope  for  a  future  life  of 
glory  and  happiness  for  all  men  irrespective  of  charac- 
ter and  conduct.  The  whole  lesson  of  evolution  would 
be  that  if  such  a  destiny  were  to  be  experienced  it  could 
only  be  for  a  selected  special  part  of  the  race.  And  as 
far  as  it  would  give  any  indication  at  all  it  would  be 
that  the  reprobation  of  the  remainder  would  be  final. 
That  is  the  analogy  of  all  the  rest  of  the  evolution 
process. 


136  THE  SUPEKNATUBAL 

But  to  say  that  punishment  and  future  reprobation 
is  a  fact  is  far  from  saying  that  it  is  a  factor  of  religion. 
It  is  a  fact  of  nature,  just  like  fire  or  poison  or  storms 
or  death.  And  God's  attitude  in  religion  towards  it  is 
precisely  the  same  as  towards  any  one  of  these  others. 
The  fact  that  in  the  Bible,  even  in  God's  supernatural 
messages,  there  is  much  said  about  it  does  not  alter  the 
fact  that  it  belongs  distinctly  to  nature.  In  the  super- 
natural ministry  of  Jesus  there  was  much  connection 
with  disease,  disaster  and  death,  but  that  does  not  alter 
the  fact  that  disease,  disaster  and  death  belong  wholly 
to  natural  law. 

The  relation  of  God  in  religion  and  in  the  Bible 
movement  towards  punishment  is  precisely  the  same  as 
that  of  Jesus  towards  disease.  He  warns  against  pun- 
ishment that  is  impending  and  does  much  to  ward  it 
off,  but  the  punishment  itself  is  entirely  a  matter  of 
natural  law,  and  belongs  wholly  in  the  one  great  evo- 
lution system  of  nature. 

Punishment  Only  a  By-Product  in  the 
Supernatural 

The  infliction  of  punishment  is  no  part  of  religion, 
and  God  will  never  do  a  supernatural  act  primarily 
for  the  infliction  of  punishment.  But  on  the  other 
hand,  this  would  not  necessarily  mean  that  God  might 
not  do  something  for  some  other  purpose  which  would 
incidentally  entail  suffering  or  loss  upon  some  man, 
even  in  such  a  form  that  it  might  properly  be  rated  as 
punishment. 

For  instance  He  might  wish  to  befriend  His  friend 


PUNISHMENT  137 

and  deliver  him  from  danger,  and  He  could  best  do  it 
by  destroying  the  enemy  that  was  threatening  him. 
This  would  be  primarily  an  act  of  friendship  and  there- 
fore of  fellowship,  even  though  it  did  inflict  great  suf- 
fering, and  even  though  it  inflicted  the  suffering  on  bad 
men  in  such  a  way  that  it  might  be  rated  as  punish- 
ment for  their  sins.  The  act  of  friendliness  was  the 
primary  purpose  in  the  case,  and  that  would  be  an  act 
of  fellowship. 

In  the  second  place,  fellowship  implies  conversation 
and  commerce  of  ideas.  We  certainly  expect  that  the 
conversation  of  God  will  be  something  profitable.  Thus 
we  are  prepared  for  all  kinds  of  profitable  teaching  and 
communications,  provided  only  the  primary  motive  and 
purpose  is  the  fellowship,— is  to  do  kindness  and  give 
help  thereby.  This  would  cover  all  cases  of  warning 
and  threatening  of  punishment  by  the  prophets  and 
others.  It  would  account  for  by  far  the  largest  part  of 
all  the  references  to  punishment  and  severity  in  the 
Book.  And  if  all  punishment  is  a  part  of  natural  law 
it  is  just  as  much  an  act  of  kindness  to  warn  of  that  as 
to  warn  of  fire,  flood  or  any  other  great  natural  calam- 
ity that  might  be  impending. 

Again,  the  most  efficient  way  to  give  the  warning 
may  be,  not  by  words  but  by  giving  some  example  of 
the  calamity  actually  consummated  or  of  the  punish- 
ment actually  inflicted.  This  would  open  the  way  to 
account  for  any  instances  in  the  Bible  where  a  super- 
natural punishment  was  inflicted  on  any  one  for  a 
warning,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  case  of  Uzzah  (2  Sam. 
6  : 7),  or  of  ISTadab  and  Abihu  (Lev.  10  : 1,  2).     In  these 


138  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

the  primary  purpose  was  the  warning  to  others  and  not 
the  punishment  to  these  men. 

Instances  of  this  class,  however,  will  be  found  to  be 
very  few.  In  most  cases  where  a  punishment  is  held 
up  as  a  warning,  the  punishment  itself  is  something 
that  comes  by  natural  means,  in  the  course  of  nature, 
and  it  is  only  God's  foretelling  and  warning  about  it 
that  is  supernatural.  Conspicuous  examples  of  this 
would  be  the  Deluge  (Gen.  7  and  8),  a  familiar  geo- 
logical phenomenon,  and  the  destruction  of  Sodom  by 
a  seismic  eruption  (Gen.  19  :  24-28).  The  only  super- 
natural parts  were  God's  foretelling  and  His  helping 
His  loyal  friends  to  escape.  Of  the  same  character, 
also,  are  all  the  many  calamities  and  sufferings  re- 
corded to  have  come  upon  the  nation  of  Israel  and  on 
various  individuals  on  account  of  their  sins  and  in  ac- 
cordance with  God's  warnings.  It  is  all  natural  pun- 
ishment supernaturally  foretold. 

It  will  be  found  that  the  principles  above  stated 
cover  all  the  cases  where  punishment  is  associated  with 
the  supernatural  in  the  Bible.  Either  (1)  the  main  pur- 
pose of  the  act  was  kindness  and  help  to  some  one,  and 
the  suffering  or  punishment  inflicted  merely  as  a  means 
to  that  or  a  result  from  it,  or  (2)  the  punishment  was 
sent  as  a  salutary  warning,  or  (3)  in  far  the  greatest 
number  of  cases  the  supernatural  part  is  merely  the 
warning  and  foretelling  of  the  punishment,  and  the 
punishment  itself  is,  like  all  ordinary  punishments,  en- 
tirely produced  by  natural  causes  under  natural  law. 
Thus  in  all  these  cases  the  supernatural  part  has  en- 
tirely for  its  object  some  kind  of  helpfulness  and  friend- 


PUNISHMENT  139 

liness  to  persons  on  whom  God  is  thereby  intending  to 
bestow  friendship  and  fellowship.  It  is  therefore  an 
appropriate  method  of  God's  bestowing  fellowship 
upon  men.  We  are  correct  therefore  in  still  claiming 
that  all  God's  supernatural  acts  were  done  for  the  pur- 
pose of  helpfulness,  friendship  and  fellowship. 

Punishment  by  God 

But  after  all  does  not  the  Bible  teach  that  it  is  God 
who  sends  the  punishment? — That  God  is  the  moral 
governor  and  judge,  and  that  He  will  punish  sin? 
Does  it  not  teach  that  He  will  punish  and  destroy 
wicked  men  ? 

Certainly  it  does,  and  that  is  a  very  important  part 
of  its  teaching.  It  is  a  fact  that  God  is  the  moral 
governor  and  will  punish  sin,  just  as  it  is  a  fact  that 
God  is  the  creator  and  has  arranged  so  that  every  one 
that  goes  into  the  fire  will  be  burned,  and  every  one 
who  falls  from  a  high  place  will  be  bruised.  These 
are  all  equally  and  alike  facts,  but  they  all  alike  belong 
in  the  sphere  of  nature,  of  evolution,  of  God's  great 
enterprise  of  making  and  perfecting  the  world.  They 
all  alike  belong  in  the  "  Manufacturing  Department." 

We  are  not  at  all  implying  here  that  law,  judgment 
and  punishment  are  not  facts,  and  like  all  other  facts 
the  work  of  God  the  creator  and  moral  governor. 
They  are  extremely  important  facts,  and  facts  that 
bulk  large  in  the  communications  or  conversations  that 
God  has  with  men.  We  may  freely  admit  that  a  very 
considerable  part  of  the  Bible  is  taken  up  with  im- 
pressing this  fact  that  God  as  moral  governor  will 


140  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

punish  sin  and  destroy  the  wicked.  That  is  a  fact  just 
as  true  as  that  "  He  maketh  his  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil 
and  the  good,  and  sendeth  rain  on  the  just  and  on  the 
unjust."  And  it  is  a  fact  of  essentially  the  same  char- 
acter and  in  the  same  department  of  His  work. 

But  even  though  all  these  things  are  truly  the  work 
of  God,  yet  what  we  are  insisting  on  here  is  that  they 
all  belong  to  one  certain  department  of  His  work, — the 
manufacturing  department, — and  God  has  another 
enterprise  and  another  relation  to  men  besides  this 
relation  of  manufacturer,  ruler  and  judge.  He  has  a 
relation  of  fellowship  and  companionable  intercourse 
and  all  His  supernatural  acts  belong  to  that  relation. 
It  is  this  relation  and  enterprise  exclusively  that  is  the 
purpose  of  the  Bible  record  and  that  constitutes  re- 
ligion. All  that  He  does  of  a  personal  or  supernatural 
character  as  recorded  there  was  done  in  pursuance  of 
that  enterprise  and  for  fellowship's  sake. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  subjects  of  His  con- 
versations through  the  prophets,  the  conversations 
themselves  were  carried  on  solely  as  a  matter  of  help- 
fulness, fellowship  and  friendly  good  will.  And  it  is 
the  fact  of  these  conversations  being  held,  not  the 
things  talked  about,  that  is  the  thing  that  may  prop- 
erly be  rated  as  supernatural,  and  that  is  the  thing 
that  is  a  contribution  to  religion. 

Punishment,  therefore,  does  not  ever  figure  as  the 
primary  purpose  of  God  in  any  supernatural  act  re- 
corded in  the  Bible.  All  the  supernatural  acts  in 
which  God  personally  does  something  to  specific  men 
have  definitely  for  their  main  purpose  some  kindness 


PUNISHMENT  141 

or  benefit.  We  can  therefore  still  feel  confidence  in 
asserting  that  the  whole  Bible  movement,  Old  Testa- 
ment as  well  as  New, — the  whole  religious  propaganda, 
— is  a  movement  of  fellowship  designed  to  draw  men 
into  a  state  of  friendship  and  fellowship  with  God. 

It  may  be  that  the  subject  of  Punishment  is  more 
frequently  broached  in  the  Old  Testament  and  that  the 
New  Testament  moves  mostly  in  a  more  benignant 
atmosphere.  For  the  New  Testament  is  the  Gospel  of 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  and  its  theme  is  to  portray 
the  ideal  relations  between  God  and  men  appropriate 
to  that  higher  life ;  while  the  Old  Testament  has  the 
more  homely  task  of  letting  us  see  God  taking  men  as 
they  are  and  trying  to  enter  into  helpful  relations  with 
them.  But  the  heart  of  God  is  the  same  in  both  cases. 
In  spite  of  all  the  sin,  stubbornness  and  desert  of  punish- 
ment which  that  Old  Testament  finds  among  men  God 
still  continues  steadfast  in  His  yearning  kindness  and 
friendship  towards  them.  That  is  the  Gospel  of  the 
Old  Testament,  and  is  it  not  a  gospel  that  is  still  needed 
by  the  world  to-day  ? 


IX 
GENESIS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

WHAT  about  the  claim  that  all  religions,  in- 
cluding Christianity,  have  had  a  natural 
genesis  in  the  ordinary  evolution  process, 
and  there  is  no  difference  between  Christianity  and  the 
others  in  that  respect  ?  that  it  must  be  considered  on 
the  same  plane  as  all  the  other  ethnic  religions  ? 

We  have  seen  that  fellowship  of  men  with  God 
seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  great  goals  of  the  evolu- 
tion progress,  and  so  in  that  sense  our  Christianity  as 
well  as  everything  of  that  nature  in  all  religions  has  an 
integral  place  in  the  evolution  system,  as  has  been  al- 
ready pointed  out.  But  something  more  and  different 
from  that  is  involved  in  this  claim. 

It  is  claimed  that  the  origin  and  genesis  of  all  re- 
ligions, like  that  of  all  other  mental  disciplines,  is 
simply  the  mind  of  man  reacting  on  the  facts  of  ex- 
perience and  observation.  The  beliefs  of  religion  are 
merely  the  deductions  or  inferences  that  men  have 
gradually  made  from  things  observed  and  experienced, 
and  from  aspirations  spontaneously  springing  up  in 
their  minds  in  perfectly  normal,  natural  ways.  It  is 
claimed  that  this  is  true  of  Christianity  just  the  same 
as  of  all  the  other  ethnic  religions. 

It  is  claimed  that  our  religious  beliefs  are  the  result, 

142 


GENESIS  OF  CHRISTIANITY  143 

not  of  divine  testimony  and  revelation,  but  of  infer- 
ences from  immediate  human  experiences.  "We  find 
much  in  the  doctrines  of  other  religions,  both  ethical 
and  theological,  that  is  the  same  as  or  similar  to  things 
in  the  Christian  system.  We  do  not  consider  that  these 
other  religions  got  these  doctrines  by  divine  revelation, 
but  believe  they  got  them  by  reasoning  and  inference 
from  the  facts  of  human  experience.  If  so,  why  should 
not  the  same  doctrines  in  the  Christian  faith  have  been 
derived  in  the  same  way,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they 
are  recorded  among  the  things  communicated  by  God 
through  prophets  or  in  other  ways  ? 

From  this  it  is  but  a  short  step  to  the  claim  that  not 
only  did  these  beliefs  found  in  the  other  religions  origi- 
nate in  the  Christian  religion  in  the  same  way  that  they 
did  in  other  religions,  but  everything  else  in  the  Chris- 
tian religion  also  originated  in  the  same  way. 

Ethics,  Theology  and  Religion 
In  order  to  consider  this  problem  intelligently  we 
must  have  accurate  definitions  to  work  with.  There 
are  three  separate  things  that  are  very  commonly  con- 
fused and  joined  together  under  the  one  name  Religion. 
The  first  of  these  is  Ethics  or  the  discipline  of  char- 
acter and  conduct.  The  second  is  Theology,  or  phi- 
losophy and  knowledge  about  God.  The  third  is  this 
to  which  we  have  here  restricted  the  name  of  Religion, 
and  which  consists  of  the  practice  of  fellowship  with 
God. 

It  is  the  common  custom  to  make  the  one  word  Re- 
ligion cover  all  these  meanings,  and  there  is  no  harm, 


144  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL 

perhaps,  in  doing  so,  provided  we  recognize  clearly  and 
keep  in  mind  that  they  are  three  quite  separate  things. 

As  to  the  first  two  of  these  we  need  make  no  demur. 
It  has  been  the  assumption  all  through  these  discussions 
that  these  first  two  departments,  Ethics  and  Theology, 
belong  wholly  to  evolution,  natural  law  and  the  efforts 
of  men's  minds  working  on  the  facts  of  experience. 
They  are  matters  of  knowledge,  and  knowledge  is 
something  that  should  always  be  entirely  supplied 
from  ordinary  natural  sources.  We  cannot  believe 
that  God,  having  made  such  an  enormously  wide  range 
of  knowledge  spontaneously  available  to  men  through 
nature,  should  have  fallen  just  a  little  short  of  making 
all  available  that  was  necessary,  and  that  He  had  to 
resort  to  special  supernatural  interposition  to  supply 
the  little  remainder  that  was  lacking. 

The  knowledge  systematized  as  Ethics  and  Theology, 
then,  should  be  wholly  knowledge  derived  from  natural 
sources.  True,  as  we  have  seen,  God  might  for  inde- 
pendent and  appropriate  reasons  do  personal,  supernat- 
ural acts  now  that  would  contain  suggestions  and 
teaching  as  to  His  nature  and  will  for  man's  conduct, 
and  this  would  be  a  source  from  which  we  would  get 
knowledge  and  ethical  training  also.  He  might  for 
fellowship's  sake  make  actual  communications  and  rev- 
elations. But  this  does  not  contradict  the  claim  that 
all  our  knowledge  should  come  from  natural  sources, 
for  all  these  fellowship  acts  must  also  be  counted  nat- 
ural sources.  They  would  be  just  as  integral  a  part  of 
nature  as  any  other  of  the  more  common  observed  facts 
and  laws  since  that  fellowship  is  an  integral  part  of 


GENESIS  OF  CHRISTIANITY  145 

the  one  original  evolution  scheme.  It  would  be  just  as 
legitimate  and  logical  for  knowledge  in  the  line  of 
Ethics  or  Theology  to  be  drawn  from  these  sources  as 
from  any  other,  and  we  could  still  say  it  was  all  de- 
rived from  natural  sources. 

Main  Puepose  of  the  Bible  is  Not  to  Reveal 
Knowledge 

It  is  indeed  possible  that  knowledge  from  such  special 
communications  may  have  contributed  to  any  or  all  of 
the  ethnic  religions  as  well  as  to  Christianity.  It  is 
the  belief  of  their  votaries  that  it  did,  and  we  have  at 
least  no  particular  interest  in  combating  their  claims. 

And  yet  it  is  remarkable  what  a  surprisingly  small 
proportion  of  such  knowledge,  even  in  the  Christian 
system,  was  really  derived  originally  from  such  super- 
natural communications.  It  almost  seems  as  though 
God  were  intentionally  honouring  the  great  school  of 
normal  knowledge  which  He  had  established  by  mak- 
ing His  revelations  in  such  a  way  as  to  interfere  as 
little  as  possible  with  the  habit  of  relying  on  ordinary 
sources  for  all  our  knowledge.  It  is  not  the  purpose 
of  the  Bible  to  make  new  revelations  of  ethical  truths 
directly  by  God  to  man,  and  really  very  few  compara- 
tively are  made  there. 

Unquestionably  there  is  a  large  amount  of  both  eth- 
ical and  theological  truth  in  the  Bible.  Even  in  the 
Old  Testament  we  find  very  much  of  such  truth  given 
in  supernatural  communications  by  the  prophets  and 
others.  Not  only  our  theologies  but  our  systems  of 
ethics  as  well  draw  largely  from  material  found  in  the 


146  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

Bible  text,  and  the  Bible  has  always  properly  been  used 
as  the  most  effective  handbook  for  such  teaching.  But 
when  we  come  to  examine  more  definitely,  how  much 
of  it,  especially  in  the  Old  Testament,  will  we  find  was 
really  new  revelation  of  truths  unknown  until  the  time 
when  it  was  given?  A  surprisingly  small  amount  of 
it,  at  least  of  the  ethical  teaching,  can  justly  be  cred- 
ited as  of  that  nature. 

Take  the  most  conspicuous  and  noted  instance  of  all, 
the  Ten  Commandments,  said  to  have  been  directly 
given  by  God  with  an  audible  voice  to  the  people 
(Ex.  20 : 1-17).  Unquestionably  they  are  very  impor- 
tant and  fundamental  matters,  but  there  is  no  new 
revelation  of  ethical  truth  there  at  all.  To  kill,  steal, 
lie  and  covet,  perjury,  adultery,  honour  of  parents, — 
surely  all  of  these  were  topics  that  were  not  new  to 
ethics  then.  Even  the  seventh  day  Sabbath  was  an 
old  institution.  There  is  not  a  single  ethical  principle 
enunciated  there  but  what  had  long  been  known  and  ac- 
knowledged, and  most  of  them  had  been  the  very  basis 
and  commonplace  of  the  ethics  of  all  the  nations  from 
the  very  dawn  of  history. 

When  we  turn  to  the  theological  side  we  find  only  a 
less  degree  of  the  same  fact.  The  belief  in  one  supreme 
God  was  not  a  new  thing  in  the  world  then,  nor  the 
thought  of  the  impropriety  of  representing  Him  by 
material  images.  Moreover  from  this  side  we  can  see 
what  really  was  the  purpose  and  meaning  of  it  all. 

It  was  not  a  revelation  of  teaching  but  a  Revelation 
of  God.  In  its  very  form  it  purports  to  be  that,  for  it 
begins  with  the  ordinary,  conventional  formula  of  a 


GENESIS  OF  CHRISTIANITY  147 

formal  introduction : — "  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God  which 
brought  thee  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  etc."  (Ex.  20  :  2). 
If  we  were  to  compare  it  to  human  movements  it  is 
much  like  a  man  meeting  another  with  whom  he 
wishes  to  get  on  friendly  terms,  introducing  himself  by 
name  and  by  other  identifying  circumstances,  and  then 
proceeding  to  converse  with  him  with  appropriate 
commonplaces  of  edifying  conventional  talk. 

It  was  that  personal  touch  with  God  that  was  the 
important  thing  rather  than  the  intrinsic  value  of  the 
things  said.  And  His  adding  all  the  weight  of  His 
personality  to  all  these  important  and  recognized  moral 
laws  was  the  real  ethical  value  of  the  incident. 

And  what  was  true  of  this  was  true  of  practically  all 
the  rest  of  the  ethical  and  theological  revelation  by 
prophets  and  others  in  the  Old  Testament.  For  the 
most  part  its  essential  purpose  ethically  was  to  put  the 
wreight  of  God's  personality  and  all  the  pull  of  the  bond 
of  affection  between  the  people  and  Him  on  the  side 
of  things  known  by  them  to  be  right  and  against  doing 
things  known  to  be  wrong.  Not  to  reveal  new  rules, 
principles  or  facts  that  were  not  known  before,  but  to 
get  them  to  obey  known  truths  was  the  purpose  of 
it  all. 

Setting  aside  the  purely  local  matters  of  details  of 
government  and  religious  ceremonial  collaborated  by 
God  with  Moses  and  others,  there  are  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment really  very  few  great  ethical,  or  even  theological, 
principles  of  general  application,  revealed  that  had  not 
already  been  evolved  and  formulated  by  men  long 
before.    So  that  the  fact  of  these  things  being  made 


148  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

the  subject  of  revelation,— that  is  to  say,  used  by  God 
as  topics  of  conversation, — does  not  at  all  affect  the 
fact  that  their  original  genesis  was  reason  and  expe- 
rience, and  they  were  truths  that  had  already  been 
worked  out  by  men  in  the  ordinary,  normal,  evolution- 
ary way. 

This  same  fact  is  illustrated  from  the  other  side  in  a 
striking  way  when  we  turn  to  the  New  Testament. 
In  the  sayings  of  Christ  there  are  quite  a  few  ethical 
and  theological  teachings  that  with  more  justice  can  be 
classed  as  new  or  real  revelations.  There  is  the  com- 
mand to  love  our  enemies,  the  universal  fatherhood 
and  real  universal  love  of  God,  and  a  number  of  other 
truths.  These  things  have  been  written  in  our  com- 
pendiums  and  formally  recited  from  the  first,  but  for 
centuries  they  had  no  place  in  the  practical  and  actual 
belief  of  the  Christian  world.  And  to  some  of  them 
we  have  not  even  yet  fully  attained.  They  have  only 
been  able  to  gain  the  measure  of  acceptance  they  have 
by  the  slow  process  of  evolutional  growth. 

It  is  still  further  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  even 
the  theological  level  that  had  been  attained  and  upon 
which  Christianity  took  its  rise  was  lost  as  soon  as 
Christianity  spread  and  tried  to  carry  its  doctrines  to 
nations  where  those  doctrines  had  not  been  naturally 
evolved.  "When  the  Christian  religion  came  to  be  gen- 
erally adopted  by  the  Gentile  nations  where  the  evolu- 
tion of  doctrine  was  less  advanced  than  in  Judea,  it 
soon  was  changed  into  a  practical  polytheism,  veiled 
indeed  by  Christian  names,  with  saints  and  apostles  in 
place  of  the  minor  gods,  but  none  the  less  real  poly- 


GENESIS  OP  CHEISTIANITY  149 

theism  of  much  the  same  grade  as  that  which  obtained 
in  the  localities  before  its  advent. 

It  may  seem  unreasonable,  but  it  is  the  historical 
fact  that  all  systems  of  truth  must  come  by  growth, 
and  cannot  be  delivered  and  assimilated  ready  made. 
That  is  really  the  only  way  that  beliefs  can  arise  and 
win  acceptance  at  large. 

If  we  apply  this  principle  to  the  Bible  and  the  older 
phases  of  our  religion,  many  of  the  difficulties  will  dis- 
appear which  have  caused  acute  friction  among  mod- 
ern religious  scholars.  We  need  have  no  compunc- 
tions in  recognizing  that  in  spite  of  the  large  amount 
of  special  divine  revelation  given,  the  old  Jewish  ethics 
and  theology  developed  just  as  naturally  and  under 
the  same  evolution  agencies  as  the  ethics  and  theology 
of  any  of  the  other  nations.  It  could  not  have  done 
otherwise,  according  to  what  history  has  shown  us  is 
the  way  truth  spreads. 

Genesis  of  Fellowship 
But  when  we  come  to  consider  the  third  element, 
and  that  which  we  have  defined  to  be  the  real  essence 
of  religion,  fellowship  with  God,  the  problem  is  some- 
what different.  That  is  not  something  merely  learned, 
but  something  done.  And  it  is  essentially  a  mutual 
thing.  To  be  real  and  genuine  there  must  be  contri- 
bution from  both  sides, — something  done  by  God  just 
as  necessarily  as  something  done  by  men. 

When  we  consider  the  matter  from  God's  side  and 
His  bestowing  fellowship  or  personal  friendship  it  is 
evident  that  differences  might  arise  which  would  make 


150  THE  SUPEBNATUKAL 

one  religious  cult  so  far  superior  to  all  others  as  to  be 
the  only  one  to  be  considered.  Indeed  we  must 
normally  expect  that  there  would  be  such  radical 
difference.  Personal  friendship  is  always  an  exclusive 
matter.  In  its  very  essence  it  consists  in  giving  to  a 
certain  individual  a  personal  consideration  and  interest 
which  is  exclusively  for  him  in  distinction  from  all 
others.  If  we  use  the  word  "  Friendship  "  in  connection 
with  God  at  all  we  should  give  it  its  proper,  essential 
meaning.  Personal  friendship  and  benevolence  are 
two  distinct  things,  quite  different  both  in  nature  and 
origin. 

Benevolence  may  be  wide  or  universal  in  its  scope, 
but  friendship,  on  the  contrary,  the  deeper  it  is  the 
more  it  tends  to  limit  its  circle.  Moreover  though  a 
man  may  have  many  friends  yet  the  friendship  with 
each  one  of  them  is  just  as  separate  and  distinct  as 
though  he  were  the  only  one  to  whom  he  was  giving 
friendship.  So  a  high  state  of  friendship  with  one 
man  does  not  at  all  imply  an  equal  state  or  any  state 
of  friendship  with  some  other  man,  or  indeed  with  any 
other  man.  It  would  not  contradict  the  law  of  friend- 
ship at  all,  then,  if  there  were  a  radically  different 
state  of  friendship  by  God  with  the  Jewish  race  than 
with  any  other  race.  He  has  benevolent  love  for  all, 
but  a  high  state  of  personal  friendship  there  would  not 
logically  imply  a  similar  state  nor  indeed  any  friend- 
ship at  all  with  any  of  the  other  nations. 

We  need  not  stop  here  to  define  the  causes  that 
might  lead  God  to  bestow  special  friendship  on  this 
one  race.     They  may  be  definable  or  they  may  be  causes 


GENESIS  OF  CHEISTIANITY  151 

wholly  in  God's  own  mind  of  which  we  have  no  means 
of  knowing.  The  causes  and  beginnings  of  our  own 
friendships  are  often  very  obscure.  But  if  He  did  thus 
single  out  one  race  for  special,  personal  friendship  and 
allow  the  fellowship  there  to  grow  and  develop  into 
something  radically  higher  and  different  from  any- 
thing in  any  of  the  other  nations  He  was  only  following 
the  natural  laws  of  friendship  as  we  always  see  it  in 
human  relations. 

If  religion  is  merely  ethics  developed  under  God's 
benevolence  with  nothing  more,  it  might  indeed  be 
hard  to  see  why  there  should  not  be  at  least  some 
degree  of  parity  among  all  the  religions.  But  if,  as 
Christ  declared  (John  15  :  15),  and  as  we  are  maintain- 
ing here,  religion  is  a  state  of  personal  friendship  and 
fellowship  with  God,  some  one  preeminent  bestowal  of 
that  fellowship,  and  so  some  one  unique  and  preemi- 
nent religion  is  just  what  the  laws  of  friendship  would 
lead  us  normally  to  expect. 

Our  Christian  tradition  claims  that  there  was  such  a 
special  regime,  namely,  the  personal  friendship  and 
fellowship  bestowed  by  God  on  this  one  Jewish  race. 
And  while  not  denying  the  possibility  of  some  acts  or 
some  degree  of  fellowship  bestowed  elsewhere,  it  claims 
that  the  personal  fellowship  bestowed  here  was  some- 
thing radically  different  from  and  higher  than  that 
bestowed  anywhere  else.  And  still  more,  and  most 
significant  of  all,  it  claims  that  this  regime  culminated 
in  a  great  act  wherein  God  Himself  became  man  in  the 
person  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  associated  on  equal  terms 
with  other  men,  thus  bestowing  the  fullest  degree  of 


152  THE  SUPEKKATUKAL 

fellowship  possible.  That  was  the  culmination  of  this 
one  regime  of  fellowship,  and  certainly  that  constitutes 
the  line  with  which  it  is  connected  something  im- 
measurably higher  than  any  other  and  altogether  in  a 
class  by  itself. 

Evolution  Specializes 

Or  if,  on  the  other  hand,  we  take  up  from  man's  side 
the  matter  of  man  achieving  such  a  fellowship,  even 
from  that  side  it  would  not  be  unplausible  to  suppose 
that  some  one  race  might  come  to  engage  in  a  special 
measure  of  fellowship  with  God  so  much  higher  than 
that  of  any  other  as  to  be  quite  in  a  class  by  itself. 
Here  also  the  laws  of  evolution  give  us  no  ground  to 
assert  that  all  religions  must  be  equal.  Because  the 
Christian  religion  rose  from  the  same  origin  and  was 
naturally  evolved  the  same  as  all  the  others  is  no 
reason  to  demand  that  no  radical  difference  can  be 
claimed  between  it  and  the  other  ethnic  religions. 
True  this  fellowship  which  is  its  essence  is  a  living 
something  which  must  follow  the  laws  of  all  biological 
evolution.  But  in  evolution  the  same  genesis  and  the 
same  method  of  development  do  not  at  all  imply 
equality  in  the  resulting  products. 

All  biological  evolution  proceeds  by  the  same 
methods  and  from  the  same  origin.  And  yet  one  prod- 
uct of  it,  man,  is  so  incomparably  much  higher  than 
all  the  rest  as  to  be  wholly  in  a  class  by  himself,  and 
practically  the  only  significant  result  of  the  process. 
It  need  not  then  be  thought  strange  if  the  evolution  of 
religion  has  produced  a  similar  unique  result,  and  per- 
haps in  a  somewhat  similar  way. 


GENESIS  OF  CHRISTIANITY  153 

For  instance  it  is  supposed  by  many  that  when  the 
line  of  descent  from  which  man  came  had  reached  a 
certain  critical  stage,  perhaps  by  achieving  articulate 
speech  or  some  other  faculty,  a  number  of  causes  con- 
verged to  both  improve  its  character  and  to  accelerate 
its  rate  of  progress  so  that  by  a  sort  of  "  geometrical 
progression"  it  soon  far  outdistanced  all  others  and 
became  the  only  line  to  be  considered. 

We  can  easily  conceive  that  the  development  of 
religion  in  some  certain  race  might  in  the  same  way 
reach  a  critical  stage  when  its  progress  would  go  for- 
ward in  accelerating  "geometrical  progression"  and 
soon  far  outstrip  all  others. 

It  is  natural  that  it  should  do  so,  if  religion  is 
personal  fellowship.  Personal  friendships  always  grow 
that  way.  Something  starts  a  little  special  friendly 
interest  between  two  persons,  and  immediately  that 
friendly  feeling,  in  the  first  place,  tends  to  draw  them 
more  into  each  other's  company  with  more  opportunity 
for  friendship  to  grow,  and  in  the  second  place  the 
friendly  acts  of  each  one  stimulate  greater  friendly  acts 
and  feelings  in  the  other,  back  and  forth,  at  an  increas- 
ing rate,  till  in  a  few  days  the  friendship  is  advanced 
farther  there  than  elsewhere  by  years  of  acquaintance. 

Let  us  suppose  that  some  body  of  people,  as  for 
instance  the  ancestors  of  the  Jewish  race,  in  some  way, 
perhaps  through  more  correct  conceptions  of  God's 
character  or  through  some  free  initial  kindness  of  God, 
got  into  a  slightly  higher  state  of  friendly,  confiding 
responsiveness  towards  God  than  the  rest  of  the  world. 
The  difference  though  slight  may  have  been  critical 


154  THE  SUPEBNATUKAL 

and  both  the  principles  above  referred  to  would  im- 
mediately operate  to  increase  it.  In  the  first  place  this 
new  relation  would  naturally  cause  more  frequent 
occasions  for  the  bestowal  of  fellowship  by  God.  And 
in  the  second  place  the  favours  on  His  side  and  the 
confiding  trust  on  theirs  would  more  and  more  stimu- 
late each  the  other  to  more  and  more  such  trust  and 
favours,  on  and  on  with  increasing  intensity  on  both 
sides.  It  need  not  be  long  till  the  bond  of  fellowship 
there  would  be  so  far  beyond  that  elsewhere  as  to  be 
the  only  one  to  be  considered. 

"Whether  this  alone  was  the  process,  or  whether,  as  is 
probable,  a  number  of  causes  and  processes  may  have 
converged  to  contribute,  certainly  it  would  be  but  fol- 
lowing the  ordinary  law  for  such  a  friendship  once 
begun  to  grow  special  and  exclusive.  It  is  the  nature 
of  friendship  thus  always  to  specialize  out  certain  per- 
sons for  preeminent  intimacy,  and  it  is  the  law  for  a 
special  relation  once  formed  to  strengthen  and  intensify. 
And  so  the  friendly  relation  of  God  with  this  race  and 
His  acts  of  friendly  intercourse  with  them  would 
naturally  become  radically  different  from  that  towards 
any  other  race. 

God  a  Typical  Friend 
Now  if  this  be  in  some  degree  the  right  interpreta- 
tion of  the  Old  Testament  history  it  would  indicate 
that  God  but  did  what  every  man  naturally  and 
spontaneously  does  in  forming  his  friendships.  It 
would  mean  that  God  by  the  usual  and  natural  process 
had  developed  and  engaged  in  a  relation  of  special 


GENESIS  OF  CHRISTIANITY  155 

friendship.  It  would  mean  that  God's  friendships  are 
of  the  same  kind  and  arise  and  grow  in  the  same  way 
that  our  friendships  do.  It  would  mean  that  this  friend- 
ship and  fellowship  with  God  which  is  the  essence  of  that 
precious  thing  we  call  our  religion  is  not  some  mys- 
terious, transcendental  thing,  some  formal  ecclesiastical 
bond,  but  something  that  acts  in  the  same  way  and  is 
in  the  fullest  sense  all  that  the  cordial,  homely  friend- 
ship of  our  other  friends  is,  and  it  would  mean  that 
God  may  be  expected  to  act  towards  us  in  the  same 
way  that  any  other  true  friend  would. 

That  this  is  really  the  value  of  the  Old  Testament 
movement  is  not  at  all  contradicted  by  the  fact  that  in 
the  Bible  narrative  the  later  the  era  the  stronger  are 
the  denunciations  of  sin  and  apostasy.  That  is  precisely 
the  effect  we  should  look  for.  It  is  just  the  natural 
result  to  expect  as  the  bond  of  friendship  becomes 
closer  with  the  nation  and  its  demands  on  the  individ- 
ual correspondingly  more  exacting.  We  must  bear  in 
mind  also  that  it  is  not  the  whole  nation  but  only  the 
faithful  portion  of  it,  be  they  many  or  few,  that  God 
looks  upon  as  the  people  with  whom  He  is  having  the 
fellowship  (cf .  Kom.  9 : 6,  etc.).  In  the  end,  though 
the  Jews  of  Christ's  time  had  many  fatal  faults  and 
had  the  misfortune  to  be  under  the  control  of  vicious 
ecclesiastical  leaders,  yet  they  were  conspicuous  in  this 
one  element  of  whole-souled  and  unswerving  loyalty  to 
Jehovah.  It  was  because  there  was  thus  such  a  high 
level  from  which  the  mission  could  take  its  departure 
that  Christ  was  able  to  send  His  religion  out  into  the 
world  with  efficiency.    And  we  may  notice  that  when 


156  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

after  Constantine  it  suddenly  spread  widely  and  became 
submerged  in  the  common  life  of  the  general  world  it 
took  over  a  thousand  years  for  that  religion  to  again 
get  back  and  attain  anew  that  same  level  of  purity  and 
loyalty  which  it  had  already  attained  among  the  Jews. 

It  would  be  ignoring  the  most  evident  lesson  of 
evolution,  then,  to  say  that  because  Christianity  has 
had  the  same  genesis  as  the  other  religions,  and  all 
have  developed  by  the  same  method  of  growth,  there- 
fore we  cannot  claim  any  critical  superiority  for  it 
over  any  of  the  others.  The  lesson  of  evolution  would 
lead  us  to  expect  quite  the  opposite  result.  The  lesson 
of  evolution  is  that  though  there  may  be  many  advanc- 
ing lines  there  is  one  only  that  has  reached  the  top,  and 
so  only  one  that  has  real  significance. 

If  religion  be  fellowship  it  is  evident  that  the  ordinary 
working  of  the  laws  of  evolution  upon  it,  instead  of 
making  all  religions  of  the  same  value,  would  inevitably 
tend  to  specialize  on  the  one  most  suitable  race,  and 
make  the  relation  of  fellowship  there, — that  is  to  say, 
make  their  religion, — radically  higher  than  that  in  any 
other  race,  make  it  as  much  different  from  the  others 
as  man  is  from  the  lower  animals, — as  close  friendship 
is  from  mere  conventional  acquaintance  among  men. 

Among  religions,  as  among  animal  species,  though 
there  may  be  many  that  have  had  the  same  genesis 
and  the  same  method  of  development,  and  though 
many  may  have  made  vast  development  in  various 
directions,  yet  after  all  we  may  logically  expect  that 
there  will  be  but  one  that  will  have  permanent 
significance  and  ultimate  value. 


PART  II 
The  Old  Testament 


PURPOSE  OF  THE  BIBLE 

BEFORE  we  take  up  any  detailed  study  of  the 
Old  Testament  and  the  rest  of  the  Bible  it  will 
be  very  important  to  get  a  clear  and  correct 
conception  of  just  what  the  Book  purports  to  be. 

Let  us  take  a  parallel  case.  Here  is  a  book  that 
bears  the  title,  "  Algebka."  It  looks  externally  not 
unlike  other  books.  Bat  when  we  begin  to  read  it  we 
find,  along  with  ordinary  text,  something  entirely  un- 
explainable  from  the  standpoint  of  good  literature. 
We  find  letters  combined  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  no 
words  with  any  sense  at  all.  Moreover  we  find  other 
characters  used  that  are  not  letters  at  all  and  are  never 
found  in  ordinary  literature.  We  may  find  such 
anomalous  combinations  for  instance  as  : 


a2  +  4ai/x2  —  y2  =  (m  +  n)(m— n) 

and  others  far  more  strange. 

If  we  tried  to  interpret  the  book  as  merely  a  book 
of  ordinary  literature, — philosophy,  logic  or  something 
of  that  kind, — we  might  define  such  combinations  of 
marks  and  letters  as  "  supernatural."  They  are  some- 
thing entirely  outside  of  all  the  natural  laws  of  good 
literature,  and  contain  features  that  are  not  found  in 
literature  at  all.  We  might  say  that  either  it  was  a 
blunder  of  the  typesetter,  or  some  later  hand  had  med- 

159 


160  THE  SUPEBNATUKAL 

died  with  the  forms  and  mixed  up  the  type.  Such 
mixed  up  and  strange  combinations  of  letters  are  not 
only  meaningless  and  valueless  but  are  a  blot  upon  an 
otherwise  logical  and  edifying  treatise.  Just  so  men 
say  all  these  things  of  the  supernatural  accounts  that 
are  found  in  the  Bible  narrative. 

We  know,  however,  that  this  book  is  not  a  book  of 
history,  logic  or  anything  of  that  kind  but  is  an  Alge- 
bra, and  that  such  combinations  of  letters  and  special 
characters  are  always  found  in  Algebras.  Indeed  in 
an  algebra  that  sort  of  combination  of  letters  and  alge- 
braic symbols  is  the  important  and  essential  part,  and 
all  the  common,  ordinary  letter  press  is  merely  aux- 
iliary and  explanatory.  What  if  we  should  find  that 
in  the  Bible  too  this  was  true, — that  the  supernatural 
incidents  and  supernatural  features  were  really  the  es- 
sential and  the  important  part,  and  all  the  history, 
poetry,  teaching  and  all  the  rest,  were  merely  the 
setting  and  the  background. 

A  BlOGEAPHY 

What  is  the  Bible?  What  is  the  Old  Testament? 
Is  it  merely  the  religious  history  of  a  race  which  had 
peculiar  genius  for  religion  ?  If  so  it  is  an  historical  work 
of  extreme  interest,  well  worth  a  place  beside  the  best 
works  of  Herodotus  or  Strabo.  But  if  that  is  its  nature, 
to  look  to  it  now  as  in  any  sense  a  moral  guide  or 
standard  would  be  absurd.  The  embellishment  of  such 
a  book  with  strange  and  spectacular  supernatural  ac- 
counts would  give  us  no  trouble  indeed,  for  that  is  just 
what  we  expect  to  find  in  such  old  books.     But  we 


PURPOSE  OF  THE  BIBLE  161 

would  get  rid  of  the  burden  of  the  supernatural  by 
giving  up  the  whole  traditional  religious  value  of  the 
Book. 

Is  it  an  illustrated  handbook  of  moral  and  religious 
teaching  ?  The  prophets  were  stern,  holy  men,  preach- 
ers of  righteousness.  The  histories  hold  up  to  us  the 
inspiring  examples  of  such  heroes  and  saints  as  David, 
Samuel,  Moses,  Abraham  and  a  brilliant  array  of  other 
greater  and  lesser  lights.  But  there  is  not  one  of  these 
men  but  in  the  very  brief  account  of  his  life  there  are 
things  that  would  be  condemned  by  even  the  blunted 
conscience  of  modern  popular  thought.  Surely  the 
enormous  influence  for  good  which  the  Bible  has  ex- 
erted cannot  be  accounted  for  on  that  basis. 

But  according  to  the  assumption  which  we  are  follow- 
ing here  the  Bible  is  neither  one  of  these.  "We  shall 
find  that  it  is  a  history  indeed,  but  it  is  not  a  history  of 
the  Jewish  race.  It  contains  much  moral  instruction 
indeed,  but  it  is  not  a  handbook  of  moral  rules  and 
models.  It  is  a  book  with  a  hero  indeed,  but  the  hero 
is  not  David,  or  Moses  or  any  other  of  the  list. 

The  Book  has  one  hero  and  only  one.  The  hero  of 
the  Book  is  God.  The  history  is  a  history  of  God.  It 
is  a  narrative  of  His  acts  and  enterprises.  It  may  ap- 
propriately be  called  a  book  of  the  biography  of  God. 
It  is  a  history  of  one  of  His  important  enterprises  in 
this  world. 

It  is  a  history  of  religion,  but  not  of  how  men  learned 
and  discovered  a  high  standard  of  religious  truth.  Ke- 
ligion  is  not  something  that  is  made  or  learned  but 
something  done.     It  is  a  mutual  social  relation.     It  is 


162  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

fellowship  between  God  and  men,  and  the  Bible  is  the 
account  of  God  doing  on  His  part  the  acts  of  fellowship 
which  were  to  inspire  in  men  a  responsive  feeling  of 
trust  and  fellowship.  It  is  the  history  of  God's  great 
enterprise  of  religious  propaganda,  by  which  He  was 
to  establish,  and  eventually  spread  throughout  the 
world,  the  true  religion,  which  consists  of  enlightened 
and  sincere  fellowship  with  God. 

Nature  of  a  Biography 
The  biography  of  a  man  is  not  made  up  entirely  of 
accounts  of  things  he  did.  It  must  give  the  setting 
of  those  acts.  A  complete  biography  of  Bismarck,  for 
instance,  would  bring  in  the  history  of  the  whole  Ger- 
man Empire  and  of  half  the  other  countries  of  Europe. 
But  still  it  would  be  strictly  a  biography  of  Bismarck. 
Just  so,  this  biography  of  God  brings  in  the  history  of 
the  whole  Israelite  nation  and  of  many  men  and  events 
in  other  nations,  and  yet  it  is  strictly  a  biography  of 
God,  and  is  to  be  estimated  and  interpreted  on  that 
basis. 

It  is  not  a  biography  of  God  in  all  His  activities,  but 
just  in  this  one  enterprise  of  inaugurating  among  men 
a  condition  of  religious  fellowship  with  Himself.  It  is 
a  history  of  His  religious  propaganda.  It  will  only 
bring  in  outside  facts  as  they  are  related  to  that  enter- 
prise. It  will  not  primarily  show  God  in  His  general, 
universal  activities  in  nature,  but  in  His  personal, 
friendly  dealings  with  individuals  and  specific  groups 
of  men. 
But  such  personal  dealings  of  God  with  individuals 


PUKPOSE  OF  THE  BIBLE  163 

are  just  what  constitute  the  supernatural.  As  we  have 
seen,  it  is  precisely  the  accounts  of  such  things  in  the 
Bible  which  are  called  by  that  name.  This  supernatu- 
ral part,  therefore,  must  be  the  main  thing,  and  the 
heart  of  the  whole. 

Instead  of  considering  the  supernatural  a  burden, 
something  we  feel  called  upon  to  justify  and  would  be 
glad  if  we  could  get  rid  of  entirely,  it  is  the  real,  cen- 
tral meaning  of  the  whole  Book,  and  all  the  rest  is 
merely  auxiliary  to  it.  Instead  of  considering  it  a 
questionable  embellishment  of  the  message,  it  is  the 
message  itself. 

We  may  notice,  by  the  way,  that  this  is  really  the 
traditional  feeling  and  the  estimate  the  devout  Chris- 
tian consciousness  has  always  had,  and  which  it  was 
trying  to  express  by  calling  the  Book  a  Revelation,  and 
"  The  Word  of  God." 


II 

ISEAEL 

THEKE  is  one  problem  which  lies  right  across 
the  path  of  our  study,  and  that  is  the  ques- 
tion why  one  single  nation,  the  nation  of 
Israel,  should  be  presented  as  the  sole  recipients  of  God's 
favours.  It  is  the  representation  all  through  the  Bible 
that  the  Israelites  were  a  people  that  stood  in  a  special 
relation  to  God,  that  God  looked  upon  them  in  a  pe- 
culiar light,  granted  special  privileges  to  them  and 
special  religious  teaching.  Indeed  that  practically  all 
of  God's  supernatural  discipline  and  religious  propa- 
ganda for  the  world  was  given  in  this  one  nation. 

This  is  too  obvious  and  prominent  all  through  the 
Book  and  too  fundamental  to  the  whole  meaning  of  the 
enterprises  recounted  to  require  any  detailed  references. 
The  Book  has  even  been  familiarly  called  "  The  his- 
tory of  God's  chosen  people  "  or  some  term  of  that 
nature. 

But  any  such  specialness  of  any  one  nation  or 
people  before  God  seems  entirely  contrary  to  our 
modern  conception  of  God  and  of  His  universal  love 
for  all  the  world.  How  can  we  possibly  account  for 
His  giving,  not  merely  once  or  twice  but  continuously 
all  through  their  history,  such  special  favours  to  one 
nation  which  He  did  not  give  to  any  other,  and  count- 

164 


ISEAEL  165 

ing  them  in  a  peculiar  relation  to  Himself  which  no 
other  nation  had  ? 

This  whole  idea  has  been  confidently  challenged  as 
merely  a  mistaken  conceit  of  the  Israelite  historians. 
They  imagined  that  Jehovah  was  specially  favourable 
to  Israel,  just  as  other  nations  imagined  that  some 
other  god  who  was  their  patron  deity  was  specially 
favourable  to  them.  It  is  claimed  that  the  whole  idea 
of  any  specialness  or  special  relation  to  God  must  be 
denied,  apart  from  the  special  genius  for  religion  which 
seemed  to  be  their  racial  characteristic.  Everything  in 
the  Book  that  is  based  on  or  grows  out  of  that  idea  of 
a  specialness  must  be  rejected,  even  though  that  does 
necessitate  an  entire  recasting  of  our  estimate  of  the 
Book  and  of  its  place  in  religion. 

We  could  hardly  deny  the  justice  of  this  conclusion 
if  religion  is  merely  a  species  of  moral  culture,  or  if  it 
is  merely  a  means  to  enable  men  to  get  into  heaven,  or 
indeed  a  means  to  anything  else  for  that  matter. 

If  religion  is  merely  a  process  of  men  striving  up- 
ward into  the  light  we  might  admit  that  the  Jewish 
race  had  more  genius  and  ability  in  that  direction,  and 
so  made  more  advance  than  the  other  nations,  but  not 
so  much  as  to  make  them  the  sole  and  only  ones  to  be 
considered. 

If  religion  is  merely  a  matter  of  knowledge  of  God,  of 
His  will  and  of  the  way  to  escape  punishment  and  get 
into  heaven,  it  seems  strange  that  God  should  closely 
confine  the  bestowal  of  that  knowledge  to  one  little 
obscure  people,  and  not  in  some  degree  at  least  make  a 
bestowal  of  it  on  all  the  rest  of  the  world. 


166  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

But  it  puts  the  whole  matter  in  a  different  light  en- 
tirely when  we  come  to  consider  that  this  whole  Bible 
movement  is  not  any  of  those  things  but  something 
quite  essentially  different.  It  is  not  something  done 
for  teaching  or  training  or  any  other  ulterior  object. 
It  is  simply  a  course  of  personal  fellowship  engaged  in 
by  God  for  fellowship's  sake.  It  is  God  seeking  to 
make  certain  men  His  friends  and  companions,  just  as 
we  approach  certain  persons  with  friendly  advances  be- 
cause we  wish  to  give  them  our  friendship,  to  make 
them  our  friends  and  to  get  their  friendship  and  com- 
panionship to  enjoy. 

The  whole  movement  to  which  we  now  give  the 
name  of  Religion  is  a  movement  by  which  God  is  in- 
augurating a  state  of  friendly  fellowship  between  men 
and  Himself, — something  that  He  contemplated  and 
looked  forward  to  from  the  very  beginning,  and  which 
in  one  sense  the  whole  evolution  process  was  a  means 
to  make  possible  and  to  provide  subjects  for. 

The  evolution  process, — the  great  manufacturing 
enterprise, — has  at  last  produced  a  product  suitable, — 
a  race  of  beings  of  high  enough  capacity  to  be  capable 
of  affording  that  social  fellowship  which  God  desired. 
God  now  proceeds  to  begin  it.  The  whole  Bible  super- 
natural story  is  the  account  of  some  of  God's  move- 
ments to  that  end.  We  must  judge  it  entirely  from 
that  standpoint.  Our  only  criterion  in  judging  it  must 
be  to  consider  what  is  customary  with  men  in  seeking 
to  inaugurate  and  carry  on  friendship  and  fellowship 
with  other  men.  "We  must  consider  it  normal  that 
God  should  proceed  in  substantially  the  same  way  that 


ISRAEL  167 

men  would  for  a  similar  purpose.  On  larger  lines, 
perhaps,  and  with  appropriate  variation  of  details,  but 
yet  in  essentially  the  same  way. 

Specialness  a  Necessity 
How  then  will  God  begin  to  enter  into  this  personal, 
companionable  fellowship  with  men,  and  win  them  to 
reciprocate  it  ?  Not  by  teaching  and  training.  That 
is  not  the  way  we  make  our  friends.  Not  even  by 
goodness  and  general  benevolence.  That  would  not 
effect  it.  It  must  be  by  bestowing  personal  friendship 
itself.  Benevolence  is  an  entirely  different  thing  that 
is  often  confused  with  this,  but  from  which  it  must  be 
carefully  distinguished.  A  man's  goodness  or  benevo- 
lence is  an  entirely  different  thing  from  his  personal 
friendship.  It  is  a  state  of  mutual  personal  friendship 
which  we  consider  is  now  to  be  inaugurated.  God's 
goodness  and  benevolence  had  been  in  exercise  from 
the  beginning. 

Benevolence  is  normally  something  broad.  We  ex- 
pect it  to  include  as  large  a  number  as  possible  in  its 
bounty.  The  nature  of  friendship  is  just  the  opposite 
of  this.  Its  strongest  expression  is  the  most  exclusive. 
In  all  cases  it  must  be  with  definite  individuals.  Its 
restriction  to  the  specific  individual  is  what  constitutes 
it  friendship  and  fellowship  instead  of  merely  benevo- 
lence. 

A  man  may,  indeed,  have  many  friends,  but  his  atti- 
tude towards  each  one  of  them  must  be  as  separate  and 
personal  as  though  he  were  the  only  one  so  treated. 
The  very  essence  of  friendship  and  fellowship  consists 


168  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

in  making  the  individual  feel  that  you  are  giving  him 
a  consideration  that  is  special  to  him  in  distinction 
from  all  others. 

This  being  so,  it  is  plain  that  this  religious  propa- 
ganda, since  it  is  entirely  a  fellowship  matter,  could  not 
be  general  to  all  the  world  but  must  be  restricted  and 
personal  in  order  to  be  really  friendship  and  fellow- 
ship. 

Of  course  when  considering  the  relations  and  acts  of 
God  the  term  Individual  may  be  expanded  to  include  a 
restricted  group  so  unified  as  to  feel  like  a  unit  or  indi- 
vidual in  relation  to  the  rest  of  the  world.  This  would 
be  especially  true  in  ancient  times  when  the  nation  was 
more  largely  than  now  the  real,  practical  unit  in  all 
things.  A  family  or  small  nation  conceiving  itself  to 
be  descended  from  one  ancestor  might  especially  be  so 
considered. 

For  various  and  obvious  reasons  God's  fellowship 
dealings  might  be  expected  to  be  with  such  larger  units 
or  groups  quite  as  much  as  with  the  single  person.  But 
it  could  not  be  general  to  the  world  at  large.  There 
must  be  this  restriction  to  the  individual  or  individual- 
istic group  in  order  to  constitute  it  fellowship  and  make 
it  have  the  effect  of  personal  friendship  on  the  feelings 
of  the  recipient. 

If  God  then  is  to  do  this  which  is  the  goal  of  all  the 
evolution  process, — is  to  enter  into  the  exercise  and  en- 
joyment of  fellowship  with  men, — He  can  only  do  it 
by  making  the  advances  of  fellowship  not  to  the  world 
at  large  but  to  specific  individuals  or  to  some  restricted 
group  of  this  character, — to  some  group  so  unified  as 


ISEAEL  169 

to  have  the  feeling  of  individual  or  family  solidarity, 
and  it  just  happened  that  the  people  of  Israel  was  the 
one  He  chose  to  use. 

Friendship  of  God 

We  need,  then,  have  no  difficulty  in  seeing  why  God 
should  have  treated  the  Jewish  nation  in  such  a  differ- 
ent way  from  any  other  nation,  and  made  practically 
all  His  great  supernatural  manifestations  to  them.  We 
can  see  that  that  is  the  only  way  that  He  could  reason- 
ably do  such  acts  at  all.  It  might  have  been  this  na- 
tion, Israel,  or  it  might  have  been  some  other  nation, 
but  it  must  be  some  one  nation  singled  out  to  give  the 
distinctive  special  treatment  to  or  it  would  not  be  fel- 
lowship at  all. 

Moreover  friendship  is  not  something  to  be  given  one 
day  and  taken  back  the  next.  It  is  not  this  nation  to- 
day and  some  other  nation  to-morrow.  Having  once 
given  His  personal  friendship  to  this  nation  of  the  Jews 
He  remained  constant  in  that  friendship  bond  during 
all  that  nation's  life.  If  it  taught  us  nothing  more  the 
Bible  history  of  Israel  might  teach  us  a  valuable  lesson 
in  the  sacredness  of  the  pledge  of  friendship. 

We  have  already  noted  how  a  relation  of  special 
friendship  once  formed  spontaneously  tends  by  its  very 
nature  to  grow  stronger  and  stronger.  And  as  we 
shall  find  later,  the  whole  course  of  the  history  follows 
exactly  the  lines  which  we  recognize  as  the  accepted 
code  of  friendship  as  it  is  recognized  in  human  rela- 
tions.    At  least  it  was  so  on  God's  side. 

It  began  with  a  very  congenial  friendship  between 


170  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

God  and  one  man,  Abraham  (cf.  Isa.  41 :  8,  etc.).  In 
the  course  of  their  friendly  companionship  God  gave 
the  promise  that  He  would  continue  a  similar  relation 
of  personal  friendship  to  Abraham's  children  and  de- 
scendants (Gen.  17 : 7,  etc.).  That  relation  thus  pledged 
God  kept  with  scrupulous  honour. 

Because  He  stood  in  this  relation  of  pledged  friend- 
ship with  this  nation  of  Abraham's  descendants,  God 
did  as  acts  of  fellowship  with  them  the  long  series  of 
supernatural  acts, — acts  which  could  not  have  been 
justified  on  any  other  ground,  but  which  were  the  nat- 
ural and  appropriate  way  for  God  to  give  personal 
friendship  and  fellowship  to  persons  whom  He  chose 
to  regard  in  that  relation. 

This  fact,  then,  of  the  special  relation  in  which  God 
is  represented  as  standing  to  the  nation  of  Israel  does 
not  imply  that  the  nation  or  the  people  were  in  any 
respect  essentially  different  from  the  other  nations  and 
people  of  that  age.  It  does  not  necessarily  imply  even 
that  they  were  morally  any  better  or  any  higher  in 
their  theological  conceptions.  It  only  means  that  if 
God  were  to  begin  to  bestow  personal  fellowship  He 
must  have  some  specific  people  to  bestow  it  on,  and 
this  was  the  specific  people. 

If  His  friendship  was  to  have  the  satisfying  genuine- 
ness that  makes  human  friendships  so  precious,  it  must 
be  constant  and  it  must  be  personal  and  definite.  God 
could  only  begin  that  regime  of  fellowship, — that  great 
consummation  for  which  all  the  evolution  process  had 
been  preparing, — by  selecting  some  specific  people  to 
begin  the  fellowship  with,  and  these  were  the  people 


ISEAEL  171 

so  selected.  It  might  have  been  some  other  nation, 
but  it  must  be  some  specific  nation,  and  this  was  the 
specific  one.  This  was  the  natural  way  and  the  only 
feasible  way  in  which  God  could  inaugurate  His  great 
religious  propaganda  of  Fellowship  with  Men. 

This  representation  of  God  standing  in  a  special 
relation  to  this  one  nation  of  Israel  is  not  a  mistake. 
It  is  not  a  mere  conceit  of  the  national  historian,  a 
natural  but  groundless  imagination.  It  was  a  fact,  and 
a  fact  with  most  important  meaning.  It  was,  as  it  has 
always  traditionally  been  considered  to  be,  a  funda- 
mental feature  conditioning  all  the  enterprise  which  the 
Bible  records.  It  was  simply  the  best  and  the  normal 
way  to  effect  the  object  God  had  in  view,  namely,  to 
make  men  feel  that  He  could  be  a  sympathetic  friend 
to  them  individually. 


Ill 

ABKAHAM 

THE  supernatural  in  the  Old  Testament  might 
be  divided  into  three  general  divisions : 
First,  there  are  the  Miracles,  the  specific 
acts  and  incidents  to  which  we  commonly  apply  the 
term  Supernatural. 

Second  we  may  put  Prophecy,  including  the  contin- 
uous order  of  prophets  spoken  of,  and  the  recorded 
writings  of  some  of  them  given  in  the  Book. 

The  third  division  would  include  all  the  historical 
and  narrative  parts.  These  are  classed  as  supernatural 
on  the  ground  that  all  through  they  aim  to  exhibit  God 
behind  the  natural  events,  and  the  events  themselves 
are  chiefly  significant  as  illustrating  God's  directive  in- 
fluence in  human  affairs. 

Of  course  this  is  assuming  the  substantial  correctness 
of  the  narratives,  which  some  challenge.  But  we  are 
here  making  our  interpretation  of  the  Bible  confessedly 
at  its  face  value  and  with  the  traditional  estimate,  to 
see  if  on  that  basis  it  can  be  justified.  From  that  view- 
point we  may  include  all  this  material  as  various  forms 
or  species  of  the  supernatural. 

We  may  take  up,  then,  the  first  division,  the  concrete 
events, — the  specific  miraculous  or  supernatural  occur- 
rences recorded  in  the  Old  Testament. 

172 


ABEAHAM  173 

Beginning  of  the  Era  of  Religion 

Though  the  religious  movement  of  which  we  are  the 
heirs  began  very  far  back  in  the  morning  of  the  race, 
it  will  be  more  convenient  to  begin  our  study  with  the 
time  of  Abraham,  when  the  movement  becomes  more 
definite  and  observable. 

It  may  be  that  the  Adamic  story  given  in  the  early 
chapters  of  Genesis  is  intended  to  portray  the  very  be- 
ginning of  the  movement.  As  the  genealogy  in  Luke 
puts  it  (Luke  3  :  38),  "  Adam  was  the  son  of  God." 
That  is  to  say,  he  was  the  first  to  stand  in  a  personal, 
companionable  relation  to  God.  At  that  time  God 
first  began  to  deal  with  men  in  this  relation  of  fellow- 
ship which  we  call  Religion. 

Up  to  that  time  the  evolution  process  had  not  pro- 
ceeded above  the  level  of  the  merely  animal.  There 
were  higher  and  lower  animals,  and  that  particular 
strain  from  which  man  was  to  descend  had  advanced 
very  much  higher  than  any  other.  They  may  have 
already  developed  all  of  the  intellectual  powers  and 
faculties  that  distinguish  man  now.  But  yet  in  their 
relation  to  the  creator  God,  and  in  His  attitude  towards 
them  they  were  only  animals  and  treated  as  such. 

Religion  as  fellowship  with  God  is  something  that 
consists  of  and  grows  out  of  definite  personal  acts  of 
God  to  individuals.  No  such  act  had  yet  been  done  by 
God  to  any  individual  of  this  evolving  species,  and  no 
intimation  had  been  made  to  them  or  conception  formed 
by  them  that  any  such  would  be  done.  Indeed  that 
personal  relation  with  God  had  not  yet  begun,  and  the 
species  had  not  yet  been  given  the  right  to  come  into 


174  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

that  relation.  They  were  in  all  their  relations,  both  in 
their  bodily  life  and  in  whatever  might  lie  to  them  be- 
yond the  bodily  life,  not  any  different  from  what  the 
other  animals  are.  They  were  exceedingly  keen, 
shrewd,  most  marvellous  animals,  but  yet  from  the 
standpoint  of  religion  merely  animals. 

With  the  period  which  the  Adamic  narratives  por- 
tray God  began  to  give  personal  acts  of  fellowship  to 
this  species,  or  preferably  to  some  individual  or  family  of 
this  species  (cf.  Gen.  4=  :  14-17 ;  6:2,  etc.),  for  fellowship 
is  always  with  the  individual.  He  made  them  aware 
that  He  would  do  so,  and  that  He  expected  reciprocal 
feelings  and  acts  from  them,  and  thereby  entailed  upon 
them  a  new  world  of  responsibility.  Indeed  they  were 
thereby  raised  to  a  new  level,— a  new  species.  And 
nembership  in  a  higher  species  necessarily  entails 
idditional  responsibilities  and  new  conditions  to  be 
net  if  the  individual  is  to  thrive,— and  the  species 
persist. 

Something  like  the  above  is  what,  from  the  evolution 
)oint  of  view,  it  is  plain  must  at  some  time  have  been 
he  state  of  the  line  of  descent  from  which  man  came, 
tnd  some  such  transition  must  at  some  time  have  been 
^one  through  in  the  course  of  the  development  of  the 
•ace,  if  men  have  evolved  from  lower  animals  which 
lad  no  such  relation  to  God.  And  something  like  that 
vould  seem  to  be  a  possible  meaning  of  these  Adamic 
larratives  or  poems.  From  that  time  God  began  to 
;ive  personal  treatment  to  men.  In  other  words,  that 
vas  the  date  from  which  the  era  of  the  supernatural 
>egan.     It  was  the  beginning  of  the  regime  of  religion, 


ABEAHAM  175 

and  so  the  correct  date  for  the  beginning  of  the  Bible 
history  since  it  is  the  history  of  religion,  or  of  God 
offering  fellowship  to  men. 

But  the  whole  narrative,  and  the  whole  atmosphere 
portrayed,  down  to  the  time  of  Abraham,  is  so  different 
from  that  of  modern  history  that  we  may  take  the  lib- 
erty to  pass  it  over  in  our  examination.  From  the  time 
of  Abraham  the  narrative  proceeds  more  in  the  style 
and  atmosphere  of  modern  history,  and  we  may  com- 
mence at  that  point  to  examine  the  supernatural, — these 
incidents  in  it  which  are  different  from  the  natural  in- 
cidents that  we  ordinarily  find  recorded  in  history. 
The  religious  propaganda  is  quite  definite  and  concen- 
trated from  that  time  on,  and  for  that  reason  also  we 
may  profitably  take  that  as  the  starting  point  of  the 
study  of  this  which  we  have  inherited  as  our  religion. 

How  Will  Fellowship  Begin  ? 

Let  us  suppose  that  God  proposes  to  begin  a  regime 
of  fellowship  with  men, — a  religious  propaganda.  Or 
rather  let  us  suppose  He  is  entering  upon  a  new  stage, 
a  more  definite  and  systematic  promotion  of  that  fellow- 
ship regime.    How  will  He  go  about  it  ? 

Fellowship  is  not  something  to  be  promoted  either  by 
teaching  or  by  general  benevolence.  It  is  a  mutual  in- 
terchange of  sympathetic  companionship,  and  can  only 
be  promoted  by  doing  appropriate  personal  acts,— the 
acts  in  which  fellowship  consists.  It  implies  God  do- 
ing something  special  and  personal.  Indeed  under  the 
circumstances  it  implies  God  taking  all  the  initiative. 
Even  among  men  where  one  party  is  very  much  higher 


176  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

than  the  other,  real  fellowship  is  never  established 
unless  the  higher  party  makes  all  the  advances. 

The  movement  had  already  begun  with  Adam,  but 
with  Abraham  we  are  supposing  that  God  designs  to 
begin  an  important  advance  of  that  fellowship  move- 
ment. Abraham  was  already  the  Sheik  of  a  large  tribe 
of  several  thousand  persons  (cf.  Gen.  14 :  14).  Their 
descendants  would  develop  into  a  nation,  and  this  nation 
was  the  one  which  God  was  to  take  to  be  the  subject 
of  this  great  movement  in  religion.  He  intended  to  so 
lead  and  develop  them  that  they  would  respond  to  His 
advances,  and  that  He  might  thus  be  able  to  bestow 
His  fellowship  and  companionship  upon  them.  That 
is  the  project  God  has  in  mind.  What  would  be  the 
steps  that  it  would  seem  most  natural  for  God  to  take 
to  begin  to  bring  it  about  ? 

It  is  plain  that  God's  first  task  in  beginning  the  great 
fellowship  propaganda  must  be  to  lay  deep  in  men's 
minds  the  feeling  of  God's  friendliness  and  approach- 
ableness.  That  is  the  thing  they  must  be  grounded  in 
first,  for  it  is  the  one  essential  and  fundamental  thing. 
The  other  particulars,  the  feeling  of  His  greatness,  holi- 
ness, wisdom  and  the  rest,  can  be  gradually  added  at 
leisure,  but  that  is  the  first  essential,  with  which  alone 
there  could  be  fellowship,  but  without  which  fellow- 
ship would  be  impossible. 

If  that  is  the  thing  desired  it  would  be  hard  to  con- 
ceive of  a  better  and  more  effective  way  to  accomplish 
it  than  just  such  a  course  as  is  outlined  in  the  Abra- 
hamic  narrative.  It  is  all  a  narrative  of  simple,  homely 
friendship.     The  expression  is  used  that  "Abraham 


ABEAHAM  177 

was  called  the  Friend  of  God,"  and  the  converse  of 
that  is  also  true,  that  the  whole  tone  of  the  narrative 
represents  God  as  the  familiar,  congenial  friend  of 
Abraham.  All  the  supernatural  events  recorded  have 
distinctly  that  colouring.  They  all  have  one  theme, 
namely,  ii  powerful  friend  having  occasional  friendly 
dealings  with  His  friend. 

This  is  vividly  illustrated  by  some  of  the  incidents 
which  otherwise  seem  hardest  to  understand  and  justify. 
When  Abraham  himself  is  acting  in  far  from  a  high  and 
noble  manner  the  Friend  is  still  loyal  to  him,  as  a  friend 
should  be.  For  instance,  in  the  cases  when  his  cowardly, 
deceitful  conduct  about  his  wife  got  him  into  trouble  in 
Egypt  (Gen.  12:11-20),  and  Philistia  (Gen.  20:1-7), 
the  Friend  stood  by  him  just  as  loyally  as  though  he 
had  been  worthy  of  it,  and  got  him  out  of  the  trouble. 

It  is  hard  to  see  how  the  attitude  of  God  in  such  in- 
cidents as  these  could  be  justified  on  any  theory  that 
God  appears  there  as  moral  ruler,  or  as  teaching  the 
way  of  a  perfect  life.  He  gives  nothing  but  opposition 
and  trouble  to  the  Egyptians  and  Philistines  who  acted 
in  all  innocence,  and  nothing  but  help  to  Abraham, 
who  was  entirely  to  blame. 

But  if  He  is  appearing  merely  as  Abraham's  friend, 
that  is  the  only  way  He  could  do.  That  is  precisely 
what  would  be  required  by  the  code  of  friendship,  but 
something  hard  to  justify  on  any  other  grounds. 

Tutelar  Divinities 
It  has  been  cited  as  indicating  a  low  character  for 
all  these  narratives,  that  Jehovah  figures  merely  as  the 


178  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

tutelar  or  tribal  patron  divinity  of  Sheik  Abraham,  just 
as  any  other  great  sheik  would  have  some  patron 
divinity  that  he  thought  was  specially  favourable  to 
him. 

That  representation  is  correct.  God  does  so  appear 
there,  and  He  was  just  that  and  intended  to  be  so.  He 
must  be  that  if  He  would  be  the  kind  of  God  that  reli- 
gion presupposes  and  requires.  That  instinct  which 
led  other  tribes,  communities  or  nations  to  believe  in  a 
tutelar  divinity  specially  favourable  to  them,  was  a  cor- 
rect, because  natural,  instinct,  growing  out  of  the  nat- 
ural needs  of  the  heart.  It  is  that  need  that  God  by 
His  true  religion  means  to  satisfy.  That  is  really  the 
very  essence  of  our  devotional  religion  to-day.  It  is 
personal  friendship,  and  personal  friendship  is  always 
something  which  is  specific  to  the  individual  in  dis- 
tinction from  all  others. 

Jehovah  was  to  Abraham  just  what  the  tutelar  divin- 
ities of  other  tribes  were  conceived  to  be  to  them,  for 
that  is  something  that  the  human  heart  needs,  and  it  is 
the  fundamental  essence  of  religion.  But  His  being 
that  did  not  prevent  His  also  being  far  more.  God 
could  be  perfect  man  in  Jesus  Christ  without  inter- 
fering with  the  fact  that  He  was  also  infinite  God. 

That  is  the  key  to  the  whole  problem  and  one  of  the 
things  we  must  not  forget  about  God.  He  is  great 
enough  that  He  can  do  little  things  just  as  easily  as 
great  things,  and  exhibit  Himself  in  small  relations 
just  as  easily  as  in  great  ones.  The  first  and  funda- 
mental relation  in  which  He  wished  to  exhibit  Himself 
to  men,  as  the  basis  of  all  their  religion  instincts,  was 


ABEAHAM  179 

the  relation  of  Friend,  and  that  is  the  distinct  character 
of  all  His  relations  with  Abraham. 

A  religion  whose  God  was  a  being  merely  of  infinite 
power  and  wisdom  would  be  sure  to  become  a  religion 
of  abject  fear,  practically  like  those  religions  in  low 
races  which  are  called  Devil  Worship.  If  we  add  in- 
finite justice  and  holiness  it  would  but  intensify  the 
fear,  for  men  have  consciences.  Even  if  we  add  good- 
ness and  general  benevolence,  it  would  relieve  the 
situation  very  little.  Our  experience  with  men  of  that 
character,  especially  if  they  are  very  rich,  high  and 
powerful,  is  not  very  reassuring.  Too  often  we  ob- 
serve that  the  more  personally  good  and  benevolent  a 
man  is,  the  more  exacting  he  is  in  his  criticisms  of 
other  people. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  the  very  hardest  thing  for 
men  to  get  to  feel  that  a  very  great  and  good  being 
can  also  be  very  approachable,  friendly  and  sympa- 
thetic. Even  with  the  benefit  of  all  the  Bible  teaching 
as  to  God's  friendship  and  its  concrete  revelation  in 
Jesus  Christ,  yet  so  hard  is  it  to  really  feel  it  that 
through  all  the  middle  ages  the  feelings  of  men  made 
it  necessary  to  bring  in  the  Virgin  Mary  as  the  real 
object  of  religious  trust,  affection  and  prayer,  while 
God  the  Father,  and  even  the  incarnate  Jesus  were 
felt  to  be  too  exalted  and  severe  for  human  comfort. 

We  can  well  see,  then,  why  the  first  and  most 
essential  thing  in  launching  the  great  propaganda  of 
religion  must  be  to  take  steps  to  get  men  well  grounded 
in  the  feeling  of  the  friendship  and  familiar  sympathy 
of  God.     And  that  is  just  what  such  incidents  as  are 


180  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

recorded     in    the    Abrahamic    narratives    would    be 
specially  adapted  to  do. 

Two  Separate  Eelations 
To  make  an  analogy,  imagine  the  case  of  some 
feudal  retainer  or  court  servant,  who  has  come  to  be  a 
special  favourite  with  his  king  or  lord.  The  king  has 
a  special  fondness  for  him,  and  while  he  continues 
right  on  in  the  duties  and  dangers  of  his  service,  yet 
the  king  finds  frequent  occasion  to  meet  with  him  as 
friend  with  friend  and  enjoy  his  society,  as  well  as  to 
favour  him  in  various  ways  and  stand  loyally  by  him  as 
his  friend.  That  would  be  a  fairly  accurate  analogy  of 
this  record  of  the  intercourse  of  Abraham  with  God.  It 
illustrates  the  fundamental  essence  of  the  religion  which 
God  wishes  to  have  us  practice,  and  in  which  He  was 
beginning  to  train  Abraham  and  his  descendants  here. 

But  we  must  note  that  while  God's  dealings  with 
Abraham  here,  and  with  men  generally  in  religion,  are 
in  the  attitude  of  friend  rather  than  of  moral  ruler, 
that  does  not  mean  that  men  are  to  act  towards  God 
only  as  a  friend,  and  never  give  Him  the  treatment 
appropriate  to  a  ruler.  Even  the  court  favourite  must 
always  recognize  that  the  king  is  king.  God  is  our 
Moral  Euler.  That  is  an  integral  part  of  natural  law. 
It  is  both  natural  and  useful  that  men  should  treat  God 
in  that  capacity.  Eeligion  does  not  advise  men  not  to 
give  God  the  obedience  due  to  a  ruler  because  it  gives 
them  the  privilege  of  approaching  Him  as  their  friend. 
The  two  relations  are  not  at  all  mutually  exclusive  or 
contradictory. 


ABEAHAM  181 

Even  part  of  God's  friendly  intercourse  as  a  friend 
with  man  may  consist  in  teaching  him  the  proper  con- 
duct towards  Himself  as  Moral  Kuler  and  Sovereign, 
and  in  taking  suitable  steps  to  get  men  to  give  Him 
that  proper  respect  and  treatment.  It  is  really  friend- 
ship and  kindness  to  do  so.  The  king  would  be  un- 
kind towards  his  favourite  if  he  did  not  when  necessary 
give  him  suitable  advice  and  training  in  courtly  manners 
and  behaviour. 

The  fact  of  these  two  relations,  then,  is  fundamental 
and  important.  While  God  does  not  in  the  least  abdi- 
cate His  position  of  Moral  Kuler,  with  all  its  necessary 
duties  and  results  devolving  on  men,  yet  He  does  ap- 
proach and  deal  with  men  distinctly  in  the  character 
of  friend,  with  all  the  sympathy  as  well  as  all  the 
privileges  and  amenities  that  our  ordinary  human  re- 
lations of  friendship  imply. 

If  we  keep  these  two  principles  clearly  in  mind  we 
will  be  able  to  see  a  consistency  and  appropriateness  in 
all  the  Old  Testament  narratives  of  God's  dealings 
with  men.  And  we  will  be  able  to  see  that  by  means 
of  them  the  Old  Testament  does  after  all  bring  a  most 
valuable  contribution  to  religion,  quite  on  the  same 
level  as  the  New  Testament,  and  well  worthy  to  be 
esteemed  a  revelation  of  God. 

Always  as  Friend,  Not  as  Moral  Ruler 
in  the  Supernatural  Acts 

The  supernatural  dealings  of  God  with  Abraham 
consist  first  of  a  number  of  intimate,  friendly  inter- 
views in  which  He  makes  him  various  promises,  such 


182  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

as  the  promise  of  a  son,  of  possession  of  all  that  land, 
of  numerous  posterity  and  general  prosperity  in  the 
future.  In  all  these  the  attitude  of  God  is  represented 
to  be  that  of  a  familiar  friend,  though  in  some  cases  He 
invests  the  interview  with  an  air  of  mystery  and 
solemnity  suggestive  of  a  supernatural  being.  In  the 
interview  about  the  destruction  of  Sodom  this  plane 
of  familiarity  is  especially  emphasized.  "  Shall  I  hide 
from  Abraham  the  thing  I  am  about  to  do,"  He  says 
(Gen.  18 :  17),  as  though  it  would  be  unkind  to  keep 
secrets  from  His  friend. 

It  is  the  extreme  anthropomorphism  in  all  these  ac- 
counts that  in  many  minds  has  stamped  them  as  being 
certainly  mythological.  But  really  it  was  just  that 
view  of  God's  character  which  it  was  the  most  neces- 
sary to  impress  at  this  time.  It  was  the  most  impor- 
tant thing  for  the  purposes  God  had  in  view  that  there 
should  be  this  extremely  anthropomorphic  aspect  in  all 
these  appearances.  It  was  to  fix  indelibly  in  the  hearts 
of  this  race  the  feeling  of  God's  personality  and  of  His 
friendly  sympathy.  Those  are  thoughts  far  more  im- 
portant for  religion,  at  least  at  first,  than  the  deeper 
truths  about  His  wisdom,  justice,  power  and  other 
attributes.  God  considered  them  of  such  great  im- 
portance that  He  became  man  in  the  person  of  Jesus 
Christ  just  to  be  able  to  impress  those  features  and 
make  men  feel  them. 

These  incidents,  and  others  like  them,  did  fix  deeply 
in  the  hearts  of  this  race  the  feeling  that  God  was 
their  friend,  and  could  be  trusted  and  leaned  upon  as  a 
friend.     They  have  had  much  part  in  producing  that 


ABEAHAM  183 

feeling  in  all  the  Church  down  to  modern  times,  and 
Christians  who  still  have  the  old  faith  in  the  old  Bible 
still  get  a  good  deal  of  their  feeling  of  the  reality  of 
God  as  a  sympathetic  friend  from  these  same  old 
stories.  It  is  rejecting  all  this  part  of  the  Bible  as 
spurious  or  mythological  that  has  had  much  influence 
in  bringing  many  Christians  to  lose  their  vivid  sense  of 
God  as  a  present  sympathetic  friend,  and  to  make  re- 
ligion to  be  merely  and  solely  a  matter  of  character- 
building  and  social  service,  with  God  retained  in  it 
chiefly  as  an  ornament, — a  sort  of  President  Emeritus, 
retained  for  the  prestige  of  His  name. 

Certainly  such  stories  as  these  do  have  the  effect  of 
making  God  seem  near  and  sympathetic.  Children, 
for  instance,  who  believe  in  them  implicitly,  do  get 
from  them  a  vivid  feeling  of  God's  reality  and  His 
friendliness.  Those  who  consider  them  fiction  would 
admit  that  as  fiction  such  stories  would  be  precisely 
calculated  to  rouse  in  their  readers  such  a  feeling. 

If  men  could  be  wise  enough  to  make  up  fictitious 
stories  suited  for  producing  that  feeling,  is  not  God 
wise  enough  to  make  the  real  thing  for  the  same  pur- 
pose, if  the  purpose  is  important  enough  ?  It  is  no 
more  task  for  God  to  make  the  real  thing  than  it  is  for 
man  to  make  the  fictitious  story,  only  provided  there 
is  a  desirable  purpose  to  be  attained  by  it.  Nothing  is 
difficult  or  unlikely  for  God  to  do,  if  only  there  is  a 
sufficient  motive  for  doing  it.  It  is  entirely  a  question 
of  reasons  and  importance,  and  here  we  see  that  the 
entire  purpose  of  God's  great  enterprise  calls  for  some- 
thing that  will  produce  just  that  feeling  in  men's  hearts, 


184  THE  STJPEKNATTJKAL 

— calls  for  something  precisely  of  the  character  of  the 
events  and  relations  which  are  narrated  here. 

This  same  feature  of  God's  loyal  friendship  for 
Abraham  is  brought  out  in  the  two  little  side  incidents 
of  God's  appearing  to  the  bondwoman  Hagar.  First, 
when  she  is  mistreated  by  her  mistress  and  runs  away, 
she  is  met  by  God's  angel  and  told  to  go  back  again  to 
her  mistress  (Gen.  16 :  71),  precisely  as  a  friend  of  the 
family  would  have  done  if  he  had  run  across  her,  and 
without  any  notice  at  all  of  the  injustice  with  which 
she  had  been  treated.  Later  when  she  is  sent  away 
rather  cruelly  by  Abraham,  God's  angel  again  finds 
her  and  befriends  her  (Gen.  21 :  IT  ff.),  but  does  it  very 
expressly  for  Abraham's  sake,  because  her  son  Ishmael 
is  Abraham's  son.  It  is  not  the  God  of  Justice,  cer- 
tainly not  the  teacher  of  morals  and  character,  that  is 
most  in  evidence  here,  but  merely  the  loyal,  faithful 
friend  of  Abraham. 

In  the  incident  of  the  great  trial  with  regard  to 
offering  up  his  son  Isaac  (Gen.  22 : 1-13),  this  is  not  so 
evident  at  first  sight,  perhaps,  but  yet  that  really  is  the 
nature  of  the  incident.  It  is  essentially  a  friend  testing 
the  loyalty  and  trust  of  His  friend,  rather  than  the  act 
of  a  Moral  Governor  and  divine  sovereign.  And  this 
fact  helps  to  explain  and  justify  what  to  the  modern 
conscience  has  presented  several  questionable  features. 

God  wishes  to  test  the  faith  and  loyalty  of  His 
friend.  Not  that  He  has  any  doubts  Himself  about  it 
or  does  not  know,  but  rather  He  takes  this  means  to 
make  conspicuous  to  all  the  world  these  noble  traits 
which  He  knew  that  His  friend  Abraham  had  in  a 


ABEAHAM  185 

remarkable  degree.  Though  it  was  doubtless  pretty 
severe  while  it  was  going  on,  yet  really  there  was 
no  greater  kindness  or  honour  which  He  could  have 
showed  to  His  friend  than  thus  to  prove  conspicuously 
before  the  world  his  noble  character. 

Familiak  Approachableness  Bather  Than 
Greatness 

The  trouble  with  us  in  these  days  is  that  we  have 
become  so  obsessed  with  the  idea  of  bigness  that  we 
can  appreciate  nothing  but  the  bigness  of  God.  It  is 
the  biggest  battle-ship,  the  biggest  steel  company,  the 
biggest  international  exposition  that  holds  all  our  at- 
tention. It  is  the  infinite  bigness  of  God  that  makes 
the  greatest  appeal  to  us.  It  is  a  new  discovery,  and 
we  can't  get  through  admiring  it.  Like  the  boy  with 
a  new  toy,  who  thinks  it  is  about  the  most  important 
thing  in  the  world,  science  has  discovered  the  unmeas- 
urable  bigness  and  greatness  of  God,  and  we  can't 
bring  our  minds  to  appreciate  that  there  are  other 
aspects  of  His  character  that  may  be  of  just  as  much, 
or  far  more,  religious  value  than  this  fact  of  His  ex- 
treme greatness. 

As  a  philosophical  fact  this  conception  of  the  great- 
ness of  God  is,  of  course,  of  very  great  importance. 
But  for  practical  devotional  purposes,  to  us  that  great- 
ness, beyond  certain  limits,  is  not  an  advantage  but  the 
reverse.  So  much  so  that  God  had  to  veil  that  great- 
ness by  a  human  body  and  human  nature  in  Jesus 
Christ  in  order  that  it  might  be  possible  to  make  the 
approach   to  us  which  religion  required.     For  that 


186  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

greatness  tends  to  obscure  in  our  minds  the  tenderer, 
sympathetic  qualities  which  form  the  basis  of  religion, 
and  which  alone  can  meet  the  longings  of  our  hearts. 

We  are  making  now  that  same  mistake  that  the 
Church  in  the  middle  ages  made.  They  allowed  their 
minds  to  dwell  so  much  upon  the  exalted  majesty  of 
Jesus  as  the  Son  of  God  that  even  Jesus  became  ex- 
alted entirely  beyond  the  range  of  human  sympathy, 
and  they  had  to  bring  in  the  offices  of  the  Virgin  Mary 
and  the  Saints  to  supply  that  sympathetic  friendship 
which  they  could  no  longer  conceive  of  God  as  afford- 
ing. We  have  equally,  from  another  angel,  exalted 
God  in  our  thoughts  to  such  an  infinite  greatness  that 
the  same  result  has  ensued.  Only  we  have  not  put  in 
any  substitute,  as  they  did,  but  have  built  up  a  religion 
consisting  solely  of  character  and  social  service,  that 
don't  really  much  require  any  God  to  make  it  go. 

What  we  most  need  to-day  is  to  get  back  again  to 
the  Old  Testament  with  its  anthropomorphic  God. 
We  need  just  what  these  old  Abraham  stories  furnish 
to  put  a  little  blood  and  life  into  our  religious  experi- 
ence. What  our  hearts  need,  just  as  much  as  theirs 
and  the  people  of  all  time,  is  this  familiar,  companion- 
able God  depicted  here,  who  met  with  Abraham  as 
friend  with  friend,  stood  by  him  just  as  helpfully  when 
he  did  not  deserve  it  as  when  he  did,  who  seemed  to 
treat  him  almost  as  a  bosom  companion  from  whom  He 
had  no  secrets,  and  who  had  human  spirit  and  humour 
enough  to  employ  a  friendly  stratagem  to  make  con- 
spicuous to  all  the  world  the  marvellous  faith  and 
loyalty  of  His  friend  Abraham. 


IV 

MOSES 

THERE  are  a  very  few  cases  of  the  supernatural 
in  the  times  of  Abraham's  near  descendants, 
Isaac,  Jacob  and  Joseph,  consisting  of  visions, 
dreams  and  interpretations  of  dreams.  Isaac  has  two 
visions  in  which  the  promises  already  made  to  Abraham 
are  renewed  to  him  (Gen.  26 :  2-5,  24).  Jacob  has  the 
dream  of  the  ladder  up  to  heaven  (Gen.  28 :  12  ff.), 
which  Jesus  Himself  interprets  (John  1 :  51)  as  con- 
veying the  same  lesson  which  His  own  coming  proved, 
namely,  that  God  is  accessible  to  men  and  sympathetic 
with  them.  Also  there  were  the  angels  and  the  man 
wrestling  with  him  on  his  return  from  Padanaram  with 
a  similar  value  (Gen.  32: 1-24  ff.).  Joseph's  dreams 
(Gen.  37 : 5-11)  were  of  personal  favour  and  greatness 
that  was  to  be  his,  and  his  interpretation  of  the  dreams 
in  Egypt  (Gen.  40 : 9-19  and  41 :  25-36)  were  part  of 
God's  plan  to  bring  that  favour  to  him.  All  of  these 
were  calculated  to  make  them  feel  that  God  was  in- 
terested in  them  and  caring  for  their  personal  welfare. 
All  were  very  appropriate  contributions  to  the  great 
purpose  God  had  in  His  religious  propaganda  at  that 
stage. 

After  this  we  have  record  of  no  more  supernatural 
acts  for  several  long  centuries,  till  the  times  of  Moses. 

187 


188  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL 

Beading  the  Bible  one  perhaps  carelessly  gets  the 
impression  that  the  history  of  the  Israelite  race  is 
represented  there  as  a  continuous  succession  of  these 
miraculous  events.  The  fact  is  that  the  record  only 
speaks  of  a  few,  coming  at  specially  significant  epochs 
and  hundreds  of  years  apart.  This  relieves  to  some 
extent  the  feeling  of  abnormalness. 

Of  course  the  occurrence  of  one  single  supernatural 
event  is  just  as  great  a  problem  as  the  occurrence  of  a 
hundred,  for  it  equally  implies  the  same  kind  of  a  new 
and  different  agency,  and  the  agent  that  could  do  one 
might  also  do  a  hundred.  And  yet  a  kind  of  event 
that  we  never  see  at  all  in  our  own  time  we  perhaps 
find  it  easier  to  be  reconciled  to  if  its  occurrence  is  not 
represented  as  too  frequent  when  it  does  occur. 

Keason  foe  Miracles  at  This  Time 
When  we  come  to  the  times  of  Moses,  however,  we 
find  the  largest  and  most  brilliant  collection  of  these 
miraculous  events  anywhere  recorded  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, and  second  only  to  those  that  occur  in  the  life 
of  Christ.  Is  there  a  sufficient  reason  for  this?  Is 
there  any  purpose  which  God  had  at  this  time  that 
would  call  for  this  kind  of  events  ?  and  if  so  is  it  of 
such  a  special  nature  that  it  would  call  for  such  an  un- 
usual number  of  them  ? 

This  was  the  time  of  the  founding  of  the  nation  of 
Israel.  It  was  the  most  important  epoch  in  the  history 
of  the  people  from  whom  all  our  religious  traditions 
have  been  received.  Still  if  we  interpret  the  history 
of  Israel  merely  as  the  history  of  a  people  who  had 


MOSES  189 

great  insight  to  appreciate  religious  truth,  and  if  re- 
ligion is  merely  knowledge  of  God's  law  and  develop- 
ment of  character  and  conduct  in  accordance  with  that 
law,  any  miracles  at  all  at  such  a  time  would  seem  to 
be  not  only  unnecessary  but  a  positive  hindrance. 

According  to  the  theory  we  are  following,  however, 
religion  is  a  matter  of  fellowship  with  God,  and  fellow- 
ship is  not  a  matter  of  discovery  or  insight  but  of  active 
deeds  and  intercourse.  It  is  something  which  requires 
God  to  do  something  as  well  as  men.  Not  because 
God  has  to  teach  it  or  men  would  not  know  the  way. 
Even  that  might  be  an  insufficient  plea  for  the  presence 
of  supernatural  acts.  God  has  to  do  part  of  it  or  there 
is  no  fellowship. 

Israel  is  to  be  the  nation  where  this  religion  of 
reciprocal  fellowship  is  to  be  specially  cultivated.  It 
is  natural  therefore  to  expect  that  in  special  crises  of 
their  history  some  conspicuous  acts  of  God's  super- 
natural fellowship  will  be  done.  This  time  of  Moses  is 
a  period  which  we  may  consider  the  most  important 
epoch  in  all  their  history,  for  it  is  the  time  of  first  es- 
tablishing and  organizing  them  as  a  nation.  It  will  not 
be  unreasonable  therefore  to  find  a  very  special  display 
of  God's  supernatural  works  occurring  at  that  time. 

"We  have  just  seen  that  the  first  great  cluster  of  such 
events  occurred  at  the  time  when  this  specific  move- 
ment was  first  being  launched, — when  God  was  first 
separating  out  the  race  of  people  and  beginning  with 
them  the  long  course  of  religious  propaganda,  in  the 
time  of  Abraham.  Though  that  movement,  of  select- 
ing and  setting  apart  this  race,  was  more  fundamental, 


190  THE  SUPEKKTATUKAL 

yet  the  movement  now  of  erecting  them  into  a  nation 
was  a  much  larger  movement,  and  there  were  many 
more  people  present  and  concerned,  so  we  find  even 
more  of  these  supernatural  acts  at  this  time  than  in  the 
time  of  Abraham. 

They  are  also  of  a  slightly  different  kind,  as  befits 
the  case,  larger  and  broader  in  their  nature,  and  includ- 
ing the  feature  of  calamities  inflicted  on  other  nations 
in  aid  of  this  nation,  and  also  of  chastisement  of  unruly 
parts  of  the  nation  itself  for  the  greater  benefit  of  the 
whole.  At  bottom,  however,  the  acts  all  have  the 
same  nature  as  those  done  to  Abraham,  namely,  acts  of 
friendship,  even  we  may  say  of  partiality.  They  are  not 
the  acts  of  impartial  rule  and  justice,  such  as  we  would 
naturally  attribute  to  the  moral  ruler  of  the  world,  but 
partial  acts  of  special  friendship  and  favouritism  to  one 
certain  favoured  nation.  Indeed  they  are  afterwards 
emphatically  and  frequently  appealed  to  as  being  acts 
of  partiality  and  favour. 

Beginning  of  the  Movement 
The  beginning  of  this  group  of  miracles  was  the  call 
of  Moses  by  God  in  the  burning  bush  in  the  wilder- 
ness (Ex.  3 : 2  ff.).  This  has  been  interpreted  as  a 
very  significant  sign,  indicating  that  though  Israel  was 
in  the  midst  of  the  fire  of  affliction  they  would  not  be 
consumed.  But  far  more  important  than  any  such 
mystical  meaning  is  the  simple  fact  itself,  that  after 
long  centuries  of  silence  in  the  unseen,  God  was  now 
again  beginning  to  give  visible  exhibition  of  His  per- 
sonal interest  and  sympathy  for  His  people. 


MOSES  191 

It  must  indicate  that  some  epoch  of  importance  has 
arrived.  God  always  has  sympathy  and  personal  care 
for  His  people,  but  it  is  not  commonly  His  plan  to  show- 
it  visibly.  He  always  has  perfect  sympathy  and  in- 
terest when  He  is  not  giving  any  visible  sign  as  well  as 
when  He  is,  so  it  is  not  a  proof  of  new  or  greater  in- 
terest when  there  is  some  visible  sign  or  miracle  on 
their  behalf.  It  must  be  a  sign  that  some  special  epoch 
or  occasion  has  arisen  in  which  it  would  be  appropriate 
to  make  one  of  the  occasional  visible  manifestations  of 
His  interest. 

And  so  we  see  that  this  marks  the  beginning  of  a 
great  movement  by  which  the  Israelites  were  removed 
from  Egypt,  organized  into  a  nation  and  settled  in  the 
land  of  Canaan,  in  which  they  were  to  play  the  lead- 
ing part  in  the  development  of  religion  for  many  cen- 
turies. In  some  respects  this  was  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant events  in  history, — that  is  to  say,  it  was  an 
epoch  or  crisis  in  recent  evolution. 

While  the  outward  appearance  of  this  miracle  was 
such  as  to  suggest  mystery  and  fear,  by  the  fire  and 
the  unconsumed  bush,  yet  the  actual  substance  of  the 
interview  was  such  as  to  confirm  our  position  that  when 
God  appears  in  the  supernatural  it  is  never  in  the  char- 
acter of  moral  ruler,  creator  or  anything  else  that  be- 
longs to  nature,  but  always  in  the  character  of  partial, 
patient  friend. 

The  movement  is  now  going  to  be  national.  He  is 
going  to  deal  with  nations.  He  assigns  Moses  a  place 
and  a  leading  part  in  the  great  act  of  friendship  He  is 
going  to  do  for  the  nation.     But  it  is  distinctly  as  His 


192  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

own  agent.  Moses  is  to  be  simply  God's  agent  in  a 
great  friendship  act. 

It  is  an  act  oi friendship  and  not  of  justice  or  judg- 
ment, and  it  is  so  set  forth.  There  is  no  hint  that  the 
Egyptians  did  not  have  a  perfect  right  to  retain  the 
Israelites  as  slaves.  Israel  themselves  did  the  same  to 
the  Gibeonites  at  a  later  period.  It  was  recognized  as 
a  perfectly  allowable  thing  in  that  age.  It  is  true  that 
complaint  is  made  of  great  cruelty  that  the  Egyptians 
had  inflicted  on  them  (Ex.  3  : 7,  etc.),  but  that  is  not  re- 
ferred to  as  a  crime  of  inhumanity  to  be  punished  but 
simply  as  a  misfortune  under  which  His  friends  suf- 
fered and  from  which  He  was  going  to  deliver  them. 
It  is  altogether  a  case  of  a  powerful  friend  seeing  His 
friends  in  distress  and  proposing  to  go  and  help  them. 

Towards  Moses,  too,  personally  God  acts  more  like 
a  friend  than  a  sovereign.  Instead  of  commanding 
him  He  reasons  with  him  to  persuade  and  assure  him. 
Even  after  Moses  had  resisted  and  refused  in  the  most 
disappointing  manner  He  is  still  patient  and  gentle 
with  him,  plans  for  his  brother  to  be  a  helper  to  him, 
and  gives  him  several  signs  of  a  supernatural  nature 
both  to  reassure  him  and  to  give  him  standing  before 
the  Egyptian  court. 

After  Moses  goes  back  to  Egypt,  shows  his  signs, 
and  his  demand  for  the  liberty  of  his  people  is  followed 
by  the  command  for  still  severer  bondage,  there  follow 
the  ten  plagues  (Ex.  5-12),  by  which  the  Egyptians  are 
entirely  overawed  and  the  Israelite  people  are  allowed 
to  go  out  from  the  country. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  go  into  the  details  of  either  the 


MOSES  193 

signs  or  the  plagues.  They  all  have  the  same  object, 
to  so  frighten  the  Egyptians  that  they  would  be  will- 
ing to  let  their  slaves  run  away  from  them,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  impress  those  slaves,  the  people  of  Israel, 
with  the  fact  that  they  had  a  very  powerful  friend  who 
was  exerting  Himself  on  their  behalf. 

That  is  the  real  character  of  the  whole  transaction. 
It  is  not  judgment  on  the  Egyptians  for  any  crime.  It 
is  not  punishment.  It  is  not  even  claimed  to  be  an  act 
of  justice.  It  is  simply  the  arbitrary  act  of  one  who 
was  strong  enough  to  do  it,  taking  away  the  lawful 
slaves  of  the  Egyptian  people  and  giving  them  their 
freedom,  because  they  were  His  friends  and  He  wished 
to  do  them  a  favour. 

It  was  quite  in  accord  with  the  universal  law  of  na- 
tions at  that  time  for  Him  to  do  this, — the  law  that  has 
been  supreme  all  up  the  evolution  process  till  very 
recent  times, — the  law  "that  he  may  take  who  can." 
It  was  no  international  wrong  for  Him  to  free  those 
slaves,  as  the  laws  of  nations  were  at  that  time,  but 
neither  was  it  God  interfering  to  right  a  great  interna- 
tional wrong.  It  was  simply  God  as  a  great  and  pow- 
erful friend  interfering  to  help  His  friends  in  trouble. 

While  the  sending  of  these  plagues  does  not  figure 
as  an  act  of  punishment  on  God's  part,  but  merely  the 
arbitrary  act  of  a  strong  friend  doing  a  favour  to  his 
friends,  yet  there  was  an  element  of  punishment  asso- 
ciated with  it.  This  is  referred  to  by  the  Apostle  Paul 
when  he  says  that  God  raised  Pharaoh  up  especially 
for  the  purpose  of  exhibiting  His  wrath  upon  him 
(Rom.  9 :  17). 


194  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

But  this  punishment  was  quite  a  side  issue,  and  did 
not  furnish  the  main  purpose  of  the  movement.  That 
main  purpose  was  deliverance  of  His  friends,  and  not 
punishment  of  injustice  that  had  been  inflicted  on  them. 
Indeed  in  as  far  as  it  was  considered  to  be  of  the  nature 
of  punishment  it  was  not  punishment  for  any  wrong 
done  to  the  Israelites  but  punishment  of  his  stubborn- 
ness in  resisting  God's  orders  and  plans. 

Emphatically  it  was  not  punishment  for  punishment's 
sake  either,  but  punishment  for  a  warning,  to  make 
people  feel  that  they  must  not  interfere  when  God  un- 
dertakes to  assist  His  friends.  If  God  intentionally 
raised  Pharaoh  up  for  that  punishment  we  cannot  pos- 
sibly consider  that  its  main  purpose  was  to  secure  get- 
ting a  bad  man  punished.  Its  teaching  value  must 
have  been  its  main  meaning.  It  is  the  benefit  to  Israel 
and  others  that  is  the  real  object,  not  the  punishment 
to  Pharaoh. 

Using  Natural  Law 

We  may  notice  in  passing  a  very  important  point  to 
which  allusion  has  already  been  made.  Most  of  these 
plagues  were  not  supernatural  at  all  in  form,  in  the 
sense  that  the  supernatural  is  usually  defined,  namely, 
as  something  out  of  the  range  of  the  action  of  the  laws 
of  nature.  They  were  purely  natural  events,  produced 
entirely  by  natural  causes  in  the  natural  way,  and 
were  events  the  exact  equivalents  of  which  have  very 
probably  occurred  at  various  other  times  both  be- 
fore and  since.  Such  were  the  storm,  the  locusts,  the 
murrain  and  several  of  the  others, — possibly  even  all  of 
them. 


MOSES  195 

And  yet  they  were  in  the  truest  sense  supernatural 
events,  that  is  to  say,  they  had  the  same  meaning,  value 
and  force  as  all  the  other  events  in  the  Bible  that  are 
called  supernatural.  The  whole  movement  of  the  his- 
tory and  the  esteem  of  all  men  classes  them  in  the  same 
class  with  all  those  other  events. 

What  gives  all  of  them  their  special  place  and  mean- 
ing is  not  that  they  were  done  with  or  without  the  or- 
dinary operations  of  nature,  but  that  they  were  acts  of 
God  intentionally  directed  for  the  benefit  of  some  indi- 
vidual or  restricted  group.  Such  these  plagues  are 
represented  to  be.  They  are  acts  of  God  intentionally 
and  personally  directed  for  the  help  of  the  Israelites. 
In  this  case  He  used  the  ordinary  operations  of  nature 
to  produce  that  specialized  help,  as  in  other  cases  He 
used  some  other  means.  The  means  is  not  essential. 
It  is  the  motive  and  the  object  that  are  essential. 

To  us  there  is  special  importance  in  the  fact  that  God 
so  used  the  forces  of  nature  here  for  that  purpose.  It 
tends  to  reassure  us,  as  it  did  the  people  of  that  time 
and  of  all  times,  that  it  does  not  require  a  violation  of 
the  natural  order  of  things  for  God  to  bring  us  some 
help  or  good  if  He  wishes  to  do  so.  It  helps  us  to  feel 
that  even  while  all  things  are  running  along  smoothly 
and  unvaryingly  in  the  channels  of  nature,  God  can, 
does  and  is  taking  individual  care  of  our  best  in- 
terests, and  can,  does,  and  is  bringing  about  events 
with  special  reference  to  our  good.  It  is  this  species 
of  the  supernatural  which  is  especially  suited  to  bring 
religious  comfort  and  assurance  to  people  of  the  present 
day. 


196  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

Personal  Care 

What  was  true  of  the  plagues  was  also  true  of  what 
occurred  at  the  crossing  of  the  Red  Sea  and  the  de- 
struction of  Pharaoh's  army  (Ex.  14 :  21-31).  It  was 
all  brought  about  by  natural  causes,  but  yet  it  is  prop- 
erly called  a  supernatural  event,  for  it  is  manifestly 
exhibited  as  an  event  specially  planned  and  produced 
by  God  for  the  sake  of  this  people  which  He  wished  to 
befriend.  Also  it  was  not  the  act  of  God  as  moral 
ruler,  or  a  judicial  act,  but  entirely  an  act  of  partiality 
and  favouritism.  God  does  not  profess  to  be  punishing 
the  Egyptian  army  for  any  wrong  they  had  done  to 
Israel,  much  less  to  be  rewarding  Israel  for  any  merit. 
On  the  contrary  it  was  their  improper  conduct  in  mur- 
muring and  threatening  to  rebel  that  was  the  immediate 
antecedent  of  the  deliverance.  It  was  not  an  act  of 
judgment  but  the  patience  of  a  long-suffering  friend. 

We  may  group  here  also  a  number  of  incidents  that 
occurred  at  various  times  all  through  the  journey  to 
Canaan.  There  was  the  pillar  of  cloud  and  fire 
(Ex.  13:21,  etc.),  the  bitter  waters  healed  (Ex.  14: 
23-26),  the  manna  (Ex.  16:4  ff.),  the  quails  (ver.  13),  the 
water  from  the  rock  (Ex.  17:5,  6).  Some  of  these 
were  apparently  produced  by  natural  causes  and  some 
not,  but  they  all  alike  must  be  classed  as  supernatural, 
for  they  are  distinctly  recorded  as  specially  and  inten- 
tionally brought  about  by  God  for  their  personal  benefit 
as  His  friends. 

Their  object  was  the  same  as  that  of  all  the  other 
supernatural,  namely,  to  impress  upon  the  people  now 
at  this  critical  time  the  friendliness,  sympathy  and  ac- 


MOSES  197 

cessibility  of  God.  They  were  all  acts  done  to  care  for 
this  people  and  supply  their  wants,  and  mostly  to  sup- 
ply wants  that  all  the  large  body  of  people  felt  person- 
ally and  very  acutely,  as  for  instance  hunger  and  thirst 
in  the  desert. 

Such  acts  would  make  just  the  kind  of  impression  it 
was  most  important  to  make,  and  would  make  it  very 
deep  and  strong.  They  would  make  this  deep  impres- 
sion not  merely  on  a  few  leaders  but  on  all  the  people, 
who  were  all  the  beneficiaries  of  the  help.  And  it 
would  be  remembered  and  felt  by  them  and  by  their 
descendants  for  many  generations  to  come.  Such 
supernatural  acts  were  therefore  very  appropriate  for 
the  purposes  desired,  and  this  was  a  very  appropriate 
and  opportune  time  for  their  occurrence. 

At  Mount  Sinai 

Most  important  of  all  were  the  events  that  occurred 
about  Mount  Sinai,  in  connection  with  the  giving  of 
the  law  (Ex.  19  ff.).  Not  only  does  Moses  day  after 
day  meet  and  talk  with  God  and  receive  from  Him 
all  kinds  of  communications,  but  God  reveals  Him- 
self personally  in  a  most  conspicuous  way  to  all  the 
people. 

The  whole  mountain  is  covered  with  a  veil  of  smoke 
or  cloud  for  days,  with  God  understood  to  be  veiled 
within  the  cloud.  From  time  to  time  come  thunder 
and  lightning  as  tokens  of  His  presence,  and  at  a  cer- 
tain time  God  speaks  from  the  midst  of  the  cloud  with 
a  mighty  voice  that  all  the  assembled  people  could 
hear.     Altogether  it  is  by  far  the  most  spectacular 


198  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

piece  of  the  supernatural  recorded  in  the  Old  Testament, 
or  indeed  in  the  whole  Bible. 

It  must  have  been  a  most  impressive  sight  and  a 
momentous  occasion.  Here  was  a  great  company  of 
people,  still  thrilling  with  the  joy  of  their  recent  de- 
liverance from  slavery,  and  looking  forward  with  eager 
expectancy  to  a  career  that  was  before  them  in  a  land 
which  was  to  be  theirs,  and  all  by  the  favour  and  the 
special  acts  of  a  great,  powerful,  unseen  God  who  was 
befriending  them.  Now  amid  scenes  made  up  of  the 
most  impressive  natural  phenomena  they  actually  meet 
God  personally  present  before  them  within  the  mystery 
of  the  smoke- veiled  mountain.  As  they  look  He  speaks 
to  them,  and  they  hear  a  voice  proportioned  to  the 
greatness  and  majesty  of  the  rest  of  the  scene.  He 
proclaims  Himself  their  God  and  friend,  and  enunciates 
ten  great  fundamental  rules  for  their  welfare. 

What  we  are  interested  in  here  is  in  seeing  whether 
all  this  scene  was  consistent  and  appropriate,  and 
whether  there  was  a  sufficient  and  appropriate  purpose 
for  a  manifestation  of  that  kind.  Was  the  occasion 
sufficient  to  warrant  such  a  great  display  ?  Were  the 
acts  themselves  appropriate  and  fitted  to  advance  some 
purpose  that  was  held  by  God  at  that  time  ? 

The  events  recorded  were  certainly  very  spectacular, 
and  in  magnitude  and  impressiveness  they  were  greater 
than  6ccurred  at  any  other  time.  Just  so  this  was  the 
most  momentous  time  in  the  whole  Old  Testament 
movement,  and  the  one  that  would  warrant  the  most 
magnificent  display.  It  was  the  founding  and  organiz- 
ing of  the  nation,— of  the  body  in  which  the  whole 


MOSES  199 

religious  movement  was  to  be  carried  on.  That  would 
naturally  be  a  time  for  the  most  conspicuous  displays 
and  most  impressive  manifestations. 

In  human  affairs  it  is  always  so.  Men  always  con- 
sider some  kind  of  special  impressive  display  appro- 
priate at  the  founding  of  any  important  institution. 
Not  that  God  feels  the  same  desire  for  display  as  men 
do,  for  this  display  was  not  for  God's  satisfaction  but 
for  men's  sake,  to  impress  them.  And  since  human 
feeling  calls  for  some  such  display  as  appropriate  at  such 
a  time,  that  was  sufficient  reason  for  God  granting  it. 

But  more  than  that,  there  was  great  practical  use  for 
such  a  display  at  this  time.  The  way  a  project  is 
started  out  may  give  the  bent  to  all  its  future  course. 
If  this  nation  in  the  very  act  of  their  organization  were 
deeply  impressed  with  a  peculiarly  intimate  and  friendly 
relation  of  God  towards  them,  as  well  as  with  His 
magnificent  and  enormous  power,  that  might  deeply 
affect  all  their  subsequent  history, — as  in  fact  it  did. 

If  at  the  time  of  the  founding  right  tendencies  were 
formed  and  deeply  impressed,  this  would  have  im- 
mensely more  influence  than  an  equal  effort  to  produce 
those  right  tendencies  after  wrong  tendencies  had  gained 
headway.  If  there  was  ever  to  be  a  time  when  the 
strongest  effort  should  be  made  to  make  the  right  im- 
pressions on  them  it  was  now.  If  God  were  ever  going 
to  use  supernatural  events  to  make  an  impression  on 
them  we  would  naturally  expect  that  there  would  be 
such  events  and  a  greater  number  and  more  striking 
display  of  them  at  that  time  than  at  any  other. 

Were  these  events  appropriate  ?    What  was  the  pur- 


200  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL 

pose  God  had  in  view?  Were  such  events  as  these 
suited  to  impress  on  the  people  what  He  chiefly  wanted 
to  impress  upon  them  ? 

He  wished  to  make  such  an  impression  upon  them  as 
a  nation  that  they  would  always  feel  that  He  was  their 
friend,  near  them  and  sympathetically  interested  in 
them,  as  well  as  able  to  help  them.  In  fact  He  wanted 
to  make  such  an  impression  upon  them  that  they  would 
feel  towards  Him  very  much  the  same  feeling  that  the 
other  nations  felt  with  regard  to  their  special  Tutelar 
Deities. 

There  is  a  suggestive  thought  there  that  we  will  do 
well  to  consider.  That  sort  of  feeling  was  a  right 
feeling  as  far  as  it  went.  Felt  towards  God  it  is  the 
very  essence  of  religion.  It  is  a  natural  yearning  of 
the  human  heart,  and  we  cannot  think  that  the  true 
religion  that  God  shall  institute  will  be  less  satisfying 
to  the  yearnings  of  the  human  heart  that  these  other, 
mistaken  religions. 

God  wanted  to  impress  them  once  for  all  with  the 
reality  of  His  presence  and  friendly  relation  specifically 
to  them.  What  more  effective  way  can  we  conceive 
than  by  just  such  a  scene  as  that  which  occurred  at 
Mount  Sinai  ?  They  listen  to  the  actual  voice  of  God 
speaking  to  them.  It  is  a  voice  of  sufficient  magnitude 
to  impress  upon  them  enormous  power  and  superhuman 
character.  At  the  same  time  it  is  speaking  to  them 
personally,  not  merely  speaking  something  in  general 
for  all  the  world,  which  they  happen  to  be  able  to  hear. 
It  is  distinctly  personal  and  restricted  to  them.  It  is 
addressing  them  in  the  attitude  of  a  friend,  and  is  pref- 


MOSES  201 

aced  by  a  reference  to  His  previous  special  interest  in 
them  and  favours  to  them.  "  I  am  Jehovah  your  God, 
who  brought  you  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  and  out  of 
the  house  of  bondage  "  (Ex.  20  :  2). 

It  is  an  actual  physical  meeting  with  God,  just  as 
real  and  in  the  same  sense  as  they  would  meet  with 
any  human  friend.  Unlike  Abraham's  meetings  with 
God  his  friend,  God  does  not  here  appear  in  the  size 
and  form  of  an  ordinary  man,  but  in  something  greater 
and  more  majestic.  This  was  appropriate  to  the  new 
conditions.  It  was  a  nation  that  was  now  concerned. 
The  nation  now  needed  to  feel  that  they  had  a  friend 
great  and  strong  enough  to  be  to  them  the  friend  that 
they  needed  as  a  nation  in  their  conflicts  and  national 
troubles.  The  enormous  voice  of  God  speaking  from 
the  heart  of  the  smoke- veiled  mountain  would  produce 
that  feeling  of  majestic  power  and  greatness,  while  the 
sympathetic,  personal  note  of  His  speech  would  still 
impress  them  that  it  was  a  sympathetic  friend  that  was 
so  enormously  great  and  strong. 

Unlike  Abraham  again,  they  did  not  see  God  in  any 
visible  form.  The  form  of  a  man  would  not  be  appro- 
priate for  such  an  enormous  voice,  and  any  other  form 
would  be  out  of  place.  The  only  reason  for  ever  ap- 
pearing to  men  in  a  physical  form  was  in  order  to 
appear  familiar  and  companionable  to  them,  and  that 
could  be  affected  only  by  a  man's  form  of  ordinary 
size.  As  that  would  be  inappropriate  here  no  form 
was  shown.  All  feeling  of  abnormalness  or  lack,  how- 
ever, was  obviated  by  having  the  place  of  His  presence 
veiled  with  the  thick  smoke  and  cloud. 


202  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

The  whole  scene,  therefore,  is  perfectly  consistent 
and  appropriate.  It  teaches  the  lesson  which  they  as 
a  nation  needed  then  most  to  learn.  It  is  specially 
calculated  to  impress  upon  them  that  there  was  a  great 
God  who  was  their  ally  and  helper,  that  He  was  a 
being  exceedingly  grand  and  powerful,  yet  sympathetic 
and  favourable  to  them. 

Ruler  or  Friend  ? 

When  we  come  to  consider  the  substance  of  what 
God  says,  both  now  from  Sinai  and  later  to  Moses,  we 
might,  at  first  thought,  be  disposed  to  consider  that  He 
is  appearing  here  as  God  the  great  Moral  Ruler  rather 
than  merely  as  a  friend.  His  communications  consist 
chiefly  of  rules  and  laws. 

But  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  now  He  is  addressing 
them  in  their  capacity  as  a  nation,  since  it  is  the  occa- 
sion of  the  founding  of  the  nation.  He  is  not  speaking 
to  them  as  individuals  that  may  be  restricted  and  re- 
strained by  those  laws,  but  as  a  nation  to  which  laws 
are  the  sinews  of  life.  As  a  nation  He  is  herein  giving 
them  the  food  to  sustain  their  national  life,  just  as  at 
another  time  He  gave  them  manna  to  sustain  individual 
physical  life.  Both  acts  may  be  assigned  to  the  same 
class,  as  gifts  of  kindness  and  friendship. 

Or  again,  we  notice  that  Moses  is  represented  as  in 
daily  consultation  with  God  over  the  affairs  of  the  na- 
tion, just  like  a  subordinate  in  consultation  with  his 
chief.  He  goes  out  day  by  day  to  the  appointed  place 
of  meeting,  there  he  confers  directly  with  God,  receives 
instructions  and  is  directed  by  Him,  and   gradually 


MOSES  203 

elaborates  the  system  of  government  and  religious  rit- 
ual for  the  nation.  This  would  seem  to  mean, — as  in- 
deed is  often  explicitly  declared  later, — that  God  claims 
to  be  the  immediate  head  and  ruler  of  this  newly  or- 
ganized nation.  At  first  thought  this  would  also  seem 
to  be  a  contradiction  of  our  theory  that  God  in  the 
supernatural  stands  always  in  the  attitude  of  friend 
and  helper.  Here  He  seems  to  be  standing  in  the  atti- 
tude of  ruler. 

It  is  true  He  does  appear  as  ruler  here,  and  He  claims 
that  place  all  through  the  history  of  Israel.  But  we 
must  notice  a  fundamental  difference  between  this  rela- 
tion of  ruler  and  the  relation  of  God  as  the  moral  ruler 
of  the  world.  It  is  not  as  the  impartial  judge  and  sov- 
ereign moral  ruler  of  the  whole  world  that  He  appears 
here,  but  as  the  specific  ruler  of  this  one  nation.  He 
appears  not  as  the  impartial  arbiter  of  all  nations  but 
as  the  partisan  of  this  one,  completely  identified  with 
their  interests  even  when  they  antagonize  the  equally 
just  interests  of  other  nations.  Moreover  if  we  count 
that  the  ideal  ruler  exists  for  the  sake  of  the  nation  and 
not  the  nation  for  the  sake  of  the  ruler,  it  is  fair  to  take 
that  value  as  the  value  of  the  relation  of  God  here  in 
His  proposed  perfect  rule  of  this  nation  of  Israel. 

It  is  not  an  exception  then,  but  just  a  higher  instance 
of  the  same  fact  of  God  in  the  supernatural  always  ap- 
pearing in  a  friendly  personal  relation,  giving  some 
benefit.  This  was  the  highest  way  in  which  He  could 
come  into  personal  relations  with  this  nation,  and  the 
highest  kind  of  friendship  and  greatest  benefit  He  could 
give  to  it  as  a  nation. 


204  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

Othek  Incidents 

Other  supernatural  incidents  of  this  travel  period, 
such  as  the  miraculous  judgment  of  Korah,  Dathan 
and  Abiram  (Num.  16),  and  of  the  priests  Nadab 
and  Abihu  (Lev.  10  : 1-2),  grow  directly  and  neces- 
sarily out  of  this  relation  of  God  as  chief  of  the  nation. 
They  were  severe  on  the  individuals  concerned,  but 
they  were  necessary  for  the  welfare  of  the  whole  na- 
tion, and  so  are  to  be  classed  as  benefits,  not  evils.  If 
laws  are  to  be  valued  as  benefits  the  execution  of  those 
laws  must  also  be  rated  as  benefits. 

One  little  incident,  the  miraculous  healing  of  persons 
bitten  by  serpents  through  looking  at  the  brazen  ser- 
pent lifted  up  on  a  pole  (Num.  21 :  6-9),  was  used  by 
Jesus  (John  3  :  14,  15),  as  a  type  of  the  free  gift  of 
Eternal  Life  that  every  one  that  would  look  to  Him 
should  receive.  This  and  all  the  other  wilderness  mira- 
cles have  the  one  aspect  and  meaning  of  God  meeting 
men  on  a  human  plane  in  a  friendly  attitude  bringing 
personal  favours. 

There  were  some  little  side  incidents  connected  with 
Baalam  and  Balak  (Num.  22-24)  that  contain  cases  of 
the  supernatural.  It  would  emphasize  to  the  people 
the  thoroughness  of  God's  care  for  them  to  see  Him 
thus  on  their  behalf  interfering  in  the  affairs  of  other 
nations.  The  incidents  also  seem  to  imply  that,  though 
unrecorded  in  the  Bible,  God  probably  at  times  made 
personal  revelations  and  had  personal  contact  with  oth- 
ers outside  of  the  people  of  Israel,  though  only  sporad- 
ically and  not  in  the  organized  manner  that  He  did  so 
in  Israel.     If  there  were  even  occasionally  thus  such 


MOSES  205 

revelations  to  other  peoples  it  would  make  it  seem  still 
easier  to  justify  the  one  long  special  dealing  with  this 
special  people. 

The  first  supernatural  event  in  this  connection  was 
the  appearance  to  Balaam  by  dream  with  reference  to 
his  going  to  Balak  (Num.  22 :  9-20).  The  fact  that 
God  first  forbade  him  to  go  and  later  allowed  him  to 
go  because  He  saw  his  heart  was  set  on  it,  is  not  con- 
trary to  what  we  know  God's  attitude  to  men  is.  It 
shows  God,  however,  not  in  His  attitude  of  absolute 
sovereign  ruler,  but  rather  in  the  attitude  of  friendly, 
indulgent  over-lord.  It  is  a  human  relation,  not  a 
divine  one,  and  governed  by  human  considerations  in  a 
very  human  way.  Though  He  is  sovereign  with  au- 
thority, yet  He  acts  rather  by  way  of  persuasion  and 
advice,  and  in  such  an  attitude  as  to  invite  the  freedom 
of  fellowship  rather  than  forced  obedience. 

On  the  way  going  to  Balak  we  have  the  extremely 
curious  incident  of  the  ass  speaking  to  Balaam  with  a 
human  voice,  and  an  angel  appearing  (vers.  22-35). 
This  incident, — making  an  ass  speak, — seems  so  crude 
and  inconsistent  with  the  dignity  of  the  ruler  of  the  uni- 
verse that  we  are  inclined  to  set  it  aside  as  certainly 
merely  a  folk  tale  or  myth. 

But  we  should  remember  that  this  was  before  the 
days  of  automobiles  and  wireless  telegraph,  and  the  ass 
was  a  much  more  honoured  member  of  the  household 
than  now.  Anyway  it  is  not  as  ruler  of  the  universe 
that  God  deals  with  man  in  these  supernatural  acts,  but 
as  friend,  and  expressly  to  impress  His  friendliness 
and  approachableness.     So  the  more  homely  the  act 


206  THE  STJPEKNATUKAL 

the  more  appropriate,  as  it  would  have  the  more 
value  for  impressing  the  relation  of  companionable 
friend. 

Two  or  three  other  miracles  in  the  early  part  of 
Joshua's  career,  such  as  the  crossing  of  the  Jordan 
(Josh.  3  :  14-17),  the  taking  of  Jericho  (Josh.  6 :  15-21), 
the  vision  of  the  armed  man  (Josh.  5 :  13-15),  and  the 
like,  naturally  belong  in  this  group.  They  are  still 
connected  with  the  organizing  and  establishing  of  the 
nation.  Like  all  the  others  their  import  is  to  impress 
the  friendly  help  and  accessibility  of  God.  Jehovah  as 
an  armed  champion  was  the  real  leader  of  the  great 
enterprise  that  was  to  get  them  a  land  to  dwell  in.  A 
miraculous  entrance  into  the  land  and  a  miraculous 
taking  of  the  first  city  in  it  and  other  subsequent 
miraculous  help,  were  suggestive  of  what  He  intended 
to  do  for  them  all  through  the  enterprise, — namely,  to 
open  up  all  barrier's  and  subdue  everything  before  them. 

The  Fundamental  Question 
Such  is  the  form  and  such  the  meaning  of  this  bril- 
liant cluster  of  supernatural  events  which  accompanied 
the  organization  of  this  nation  which  God  proposed  to 
use  in  such  a  special  way.  They  are  all  consistent  and 
appropriate,  provided  only  God's  purpose  was  such  as 
we  have  maintained  that  it  was, — provided  religion  is 
primarily  a  personal  social  relation  between  men  and 
God, — and  provided  God's  purpose  in  religion  and  in 
this  enterprise  with  the  people  of  Israel  was  not  merely 
to  elevate  the  moral  character  of  the  world,  and  get  a 
set  of  high  and  useful  laws  accepted  and  adopted,  but 


MOSES  207 

to  establish  a  friendly,  trustful  social  relation  between 
people  and  Himself. 

If  religion  is  fellowship  with  God,  and  God  had 
singled  out  this  people  of  Israel  for  the  purpose  of 
cultivating  a  high  and  close  state  of  fellowship  with 
them,  it  would  be  strange  indeed  if  in  such  a  special 
time  as  this,  the  most  critical  in  all  their  history,  He 
did  not  give  them  some  special  manifestation  of  His 
friendliness  and  personal  interest.  It  would  be  strange 
if  He  did  not  do  something  so  evident  that  they  would 
unquestionably  recognize  it  and  vividly  feel  it,  and 
something  of  such  a  nature  that  it  would  tend  to  pro- 
duce in  them  a  feeling  of  loyalty,  trust  and  fellowship 
all  through  their  future.  It  would  be  strange  if  God 
did  not  give  some  special  manifestations  for  that  pur- 
pose, and  it  would  be  hard  to  imagine  any  manifesta- 
tions better  adapted  to  serve  that  purpose  than  just 
these  that  are  recorded  here  in  this  Moses  narrative. 

There  is  nothing  strange  or  hard  to  believe  in  any 
of  this,  provided  only  we  recognize  the  supernatural  as 
one  of  the  accepted  factors  of  history.  There  is  really 
the  crucial  question.  Such  things  do  not  occur  ap- 
parently now,  and  with  our  scientific  and  matter-of- 
fact  minds  it  is  so  hard  to  vividly  imagine  their  occur- 
ring that  accounts  of  them  seem  unreal  to  us. 

But  the  question  of  the  supernatural  is  not  a  small, 
indifferent  matter.  The  whole  fabric  of  our  devotional 
religion  depends  on  it.  The  whole  movement  of  con- 
version, faith  and  inner  Christian  experience  implies 
special  personal  acts  and  relations  of  God.  All  answer 
to  prayer  is  necessarily  of  the  nature  of  the  super- 


208  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL 

natural.  It  is  so  even  if  the  answer  comes  entirely 
through  natural  means,  or  if  the  whole  affair  is  entirely 
in  the  mental  and  unseen  sphere.  If  God  gives  any 
benefit  really  because  it  is  asked  for  and  as  a  personal 
favour  to  the  asker,  it  is  just  as  supernatural  as  the 
majestic  voice  from  Sinai.  If  He  does  not,  then  prayer 
is  a  sham  and  a  self-deception.  It  cannot  have  value 
even  as  good  spiritual  calisthenics,  for  what  healthy 
spiritual  benefit  can  come  from  mockery  and  deception  ? 

The  trouble  with  most  of  us  is  that  we  do  believe 
in  the  supernatural  ourselves,  but  many  men  whose 
opinions  we  greatly  respect  do  not  believe  it  possible, 
and  so  we  would  like  to  reduce  the  volume  of  the 
conspicuously  supernatural  in  our  religion  as  much  as 
possible,  so  as  to  avoid  rousing  their  prejudices. 

But  cowardice  never  wins  battles.  If  the  supernat- 
ural is  a  fact  it  not  only  demands  our  belief,  but  it  is  a 
valuable  factor  in  the  fabric  of  knowledge  and  life. 
We  ought  to  rejoice  in  it  and  give  it  our  enthusiastic 
allegiance,  just  as  much  as  men  of  science  do  with 
strange  and  revolutionary  scientific  facts. 


ELIJAH 

FEOM  this  time  of  the  organization  of  the  nation, 
on  through  some  five  long  centuries,  again  we 
have  only  a  few  sporadic  and  inconspicuous 
cases  of  the  supernatural  occurring.  Aside  from  some 
things  that  would  more  properly  be  considered  under 
the  class  of  prophecy,  the  list  is  very  short,  and  they 
all  had  their  appropriate  meaning  and  use  at  the  time. 
There  was  the  angel  appearing  to  Gideon  (Judg. 
6  :  11  ff.),  and  the  homely  little  test  of  the  dew  on  the 
fleece  (vers.  36-40)  at  the  time  of  a  great  defection  and 
a  great  deliverance.  There  was  the  angel  appearing  to 
announce  the  birth  of  Samson,  who  did  such  remark- 
able deeds  against  the  Philistine  oppressors  (Judg. 
13:3  ff.).  In  the  time  of  Eli,  when  the  Ark,  the  symbol 
of  Jehovah's  presence,  was  taken  away  out  of  the  coun- 
try by  the  Philistines,  there  were  some  supernatural 
signs  and  plagues  on  the  Philistines  (1  Sam.  5),  and 
some  signs  when  the  Ark  was  again  sent  back  to  its 
own  country  (1  Sam.  6),  to  which  we  may  add  the  sign 
of  judgment  upon  Uzzah  (2  Sam.  6 : 7),  when  it  was  to 
be  brought  up  to  the  capital  of  the  country  in  the  time 
of  David. 

There  were  God's  call  to  Samuel  and  some  other 
special  signs  (1  Sam.  3,  etc.),  during  the  period  when  a 

209 


210  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

critical  change  was  to  be  made,  and  the  government 
become  that  of  a  kingdom.  At  the  time  when  the 
temple  was  dedicated  there  was  a  sign  of  acceptance  in 
a  cloud  filling  the  building  (1  Kings  8  :  10,  11).  At 
the  time  of  Jeroboam's  setting  up  false  worship  he  was 
denounced  by  a  prophet,  and  as  a  sign  his  hand  was 
withered  and  then  restored  (1  Kings  13  :  4-6). 

All  these  supernatural  signs  were  quite  homely  and 
unobtrusive,  and  not  much  of  a  list  to  be  scattered  over 
more  than  ^vq  hundred  years.  If  God  was  personally 
promoting  this  enterprise  of  training  Israel,  and  if  the 
essential  thing  was  to  win  them  to  a  confirmed  state  of 
fellowship  and  trust  in  Himself  as  their  great  friend, 
the  wonder  is  not  that  there  were  so  many,  but  that  in 
the  long  stretch  of  five  centuries  there  were  so  few  of 
these  supernatural  acts  to  make  vivid  to  them  His 
friendly  presence. 

All  at  Special  Times 
They  all  came  at  times  of  crisis  or  importance  in 
their  history.  The  first,  under  Gideon,  came  at  a  time 
when  the  nomadic  Midianite  hordes  had  invaded  the 
country  in  such  force  as  to  threaten  to  destroy  them 
out  of  the  land,  as  they  themselves  in  a  somewhat  simi- 
lar way  had  supplanted  the  former  inhabitants  of  the 
country.  The  second,  in  connection  with  Samson,  came 
at  the  time  when  the  strong  Philistine  nation  was  be- 
ginning to  spread  its  power  over  them,  and  threaten- 
ing to  destroy  or  absorb  them.  In  both  these  cases  the 
report  spreading  through  the  country  that  their  God 
had  granted  a  supernatural  appearance  to  some  one 


ELIJAH  211 

would  have  great  influence  to  encourage  the  people 
against  the  foes  that  threatened  both  their  nation  and 
their  religion,  and  it  would  kindle  anew  in  many  fickle 
hearts  the  feeling  of  trust  and  loyalty  to  their  great 
patron  Jehovah. 

The  third  was  when  these  same  Philistines  had  ad- 
vanced their  power  by  a  great  victory,  and  had  carried 
away  the  Ark,  the  sacred  emblem  of  Jehovah's  pres- 
ence and  friendship.  The  supernatural  features  exhib- 
ited here  were  quite  significant.  In  the  first  place  the 
presence  of  the  Ark  brought  only  disaster  and  suffer- 
ing to  the  Philistines,  seeming  to  indicate  that  the  God 
which  it  represented  was  the  partisan  of  the  Israelites 
still.  The  remarkable  circumstances  of  the  return 
seemed  to  indicate  unequivocally  that  it  was  Israel  to 
which  He  gave  His  favours.  The  judgment  of  those 
who  handled  it  with  rude  curiosity  was  suited  to  im- 
press the  sacredness  of  the  personality  that  was  there 
represented.  In  the  judgment  that  fell  on  Uzzah  when 
the  Ark  was  removed  later  to  Jerusalem,  the  same  les- 
son was  taught,  of  the  sacredness  and  majesty  of  the 
Jehovah  whose  token  it  was.  This,  though  severe,  was 
really  a  friendly  advice  that  it  was  very  necessary  and 
valuable  for  the  nation  to  receive. 

During  the  period  when  a  kingdom  was  being  first 
established,  and  the  nature  of  the  government  changed 
to  the  unified  rule  of  a  visible  sovereign,  in  the  time  of 
Samuel,  it  was  very  appropriate  that  this  great  change 
should  not  take  place  without  some  supernatural  re- 
minders of  the  presence  and  continued  friendly  and 
helpful  relations  of  Jehovah.     Of  course  it  was  appro- 


212  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL 

priate  that  there  should  be  some  visible  sign  of  God's 
presence  when  the  national  worship  was  being  perma- 
nently established  in  adequate  form  in  the  capital. 
And  it  was  quite  appropriate  that  the  religious  defec- 
tion or  heresy  of  Jeroboam,  which  was  ultimately  to 
alienate  a  large  part  of  the  nation  from  God  entirely, 
should  not  be  allowed  to  pass  without  some  supernat- 
ural protest. 

The  Great  Ceisis 

We  now  come  to  another,  and  the  last  brilliant  clus- 
ter of  miracles  in  the  Old  Testament.  We  find  that  it 
came  at  a  time  of  great  crisis  for  the  cause,  only  second 
in  its  importance  to  the  time  of  Moses  when  the  nation 
was  founded  with  such  a  brilliant  display.  It  was  the 
time  of  Elijah  and  Elisha. 

The  nation  was  inundated  with  an  overwhelming  in- 
vasion of  a  rival  religion,  that  seemed  likely  to  blot  out 
the  Jehovah  religion  entirely.  Not  only  the  northern 
tribes,  but  the  more  loyal  southern  nation  of  Judah  as 
well,  were  ruled  by  sovereigns  zealous  for  the  Baal 
worship,  and  so  thoroughly  had  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  been  carried  over  to  the  new  allegiance  that  the 
prophet  Elijah  honestly  believed  that  he  was  almost 
the  only  one  left  in  all  the  land  really  loyal  to  Jehovah 
(cf.  1  Kings  19  :  10).  It  must  have  been  a  very  critical 
time  for  the  cause  indeed.  No  wonder  then  if  this  was 
one  of  the  times  God  chose  for  a  numerous  and  bril- 
liant display  of  these  acts  that  revealed  His  friendly 
presence. 

The  supernatural  events  of  this  group  may  be  roughly 
divided  into  two  classes.     Those  in  the  first  class  were 


ELIJAH  213 

severe  and  conspicuous,  those  in  the  second  class  mild, 
beneficent  and  more  private.  Those  in  the  first  class 
concerned  the  nation  or  groups  of  people,  those  in  the 
second  chiefly  individuals.  Those  in  the  first  class  may 
be  considered  as  addressed  to  the  nation,  to  win  it  back 
to  organized  allegiance  to  its  protector,  God.  Those 
in  the  second  class  may  be  considered  as  intended  to 
invite  individuals  into  the  relation  of  trust  and  friend- 
ship. This  division,  however,  is  not  very  strictly  main- 
tained, as  a  number  of  the  occurrences  would  not  cor- 
respond to  it. 

Conspicuous  in  the  first  class  are  the  famine  that 
Elijah  foretold  (1  Kings  17 : 1  ff.),  the  fiery  test  on 
Carmel  (1  Kings  18  :  30  ff.),  and  his  calling  down  fire 
from  heaven  to  slay  the  soldiers  sent  against  him 
(2  Kings  1 :  9-12).  It  has  been  suggested  that  as  Baal 
was  considered  to  be  especially  the  lord  of  fire  and  of 
the  sun,  God's  using  these  as  the  medium  of  chastising 
signs  was  sarcastically  directed  at  the  Baal  worship. 
At  any  rate  they  were  adapted  to  impress  God's  great 
power  and  make  the  people  feel  how  desirable  it  was 
to  be  under  the  friendship  and  protection  of  such  a 
strong  God. 

Elijah  himself  is  represented  as  being  carried  up  by 
a  chariot  of  fire  to  heaven  (2  Kings  2:11),  but  at 
Horeb,  although  the  enormous  force  of  the  earth- 
quake, storm  and  fire  went  before  as  signs,  it  was  not 
in  these  but  in  the  gentle,  quiet  voice  of  friendly  fellow- 
ship that  God  made  His  real  approach  to  Elijah  (1  Kings 
19:12). 

Three  others  of  the  supernatural  events  were  of 


214  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

national  significance.  In  one  the  army  of  Israel  was 
saved  from  perishing  of  thirst  by  water  furnished  in 
a  mysterious  way  in  ditches  dug  in  the  valley,  and 
a  great  victory  gained  over  the  Moabites  (2  Kings 
3:13  ff.).  In  another,  after  revealing  to  his  king  the 
stratagems  of  the  Syrian  king,  Elisha  strikes  the  Syrian 
soldiers  sent  to  capture  him  with  blindness  and  leads 
them  to  his  own  king  at  Samaria  (2  Kings  6 : 8-23). 
In  the  third,  by  making  them  hear  a  mysterious  noise 
God  frightened  the  Syrian  army  besieging  Samaria 
and  caused  them  to  flee  and  raise  the  siege  (2  Kings 
6  :  24  ff.)- 

All  these  incidents  represent  Jehovah  as  the  patron 
and  partisan  of  the  Israelite  nation,  for  of  course  there 
was  no  question  of  right  or  justice  concerned  either 
way  according  to  the  accepted  law  of  nations  at  that 
time.  In  the  first  case  there  was  first  a  protest  made 
that  after  their  shabby  treatment  of  their  protector 
Jehovah  they  ought  not  to  have  the  face  to  expect  Him 
to  help  them  now,  and  yet  for  all  that  He  does  help 
them. 

A  rather  peculiar  incident  is  the  case  of  the  crowd 
of  boys  that  was  attacked  by  bears  after  ridiculing 
the  prophet  Elisha  near  Bethel  (1  Kings  2 :  23,  24). 
Though  our  sympathies  are  touched,  perhaps,  by  the 
youth  of  the  offenders,  yet  the  meaning  of  the  occur- 
rence was  practically  the  same  as  of  the  judgment  on 
Uzzah  (2  Sam.  6  : 2),  on  the  Bethsheraesh  men  (1  Sam. 
6:19),  or  on  Nadab  and  Abihu  (Lev.  10:2).  There 
must  have  been  a  large  crowd  of  the  young  men  al- 
together if  as  many  as  forty-two  received  injuries. 


ELIJAH  215 

They  must  have  represented  a  very  bitter  and  deter- 
mined element  opposed  to  Jehovah,  as  otherwise,  after 
all  his  spectacular  experiences,  a  crowd  of  boys  would 
surely  have  hailed  Elisha  as  a  famous  hero  instead  of 
ridiculing  him,  for  that  is  boy  nature. 

Keally  there  was  nothing  outside  of  nature  in  what 
the  bears  did,  and  we  are  not  told  that  Elisha  even  pre- 
dicted any  such  thing,  yet  probably  we  would  be  right 
in  including  this  among  the  supernatural  events.  At 
least  as  such  it  would  not  be  inappropriate. 

Of  the  quieter,  individual  events  several  concern  the 
prophet  himself.  There  was  the  feeding  of  Elijah  by 
ravens  at  the  brook  (1  Kings  17 : 6),  the  angel  at  the 
juniper  tree  in  the  wilderness  (1  Kings  19 :  5-8),  the 
crossing  of  the  Jordan  (2  Kings  2 :  8),  and  the  re- 
crossing  again  by  Elisha  after  the  ascension  of  Elijah 
(ver.  14).  All  these  were  simple  little  acts  of  personal 
care,  excellently  adapted  to  impress  the  friendly,  con- 
genial attitude  of  God  towards  those  that  seek  to  be  in 
that  relation  with  Him. 

The  remainder  of  these  events  were  mostly  with 
humble  individuals.  There  was  the  meal  and  oil 
multiplied  to  sustain  the  widow  of  Zarephath  (1  Kings 
17 :  14-16),  her  son  restored  to  life  (vers.  17-24),  the 
water  supply  of  the  prophets  in  Jericho  made  good 
(2  Kings  2  :  19-22),  the  prophet's  widow  aided  by  mul- 
tiplying her  cruse  of  oil  (2  Kings  4 : 1-7),  the  son  of 
Elisha's  Shunemite  hostess  restored  to  life  (vers.  8-37), 
the  ax  recovered  (2  Kings  6  : 4-7),  the  poisoning  of 
the  prophets  healed  (2  Kings  4 :  38-41),  and  the  in- 
cident of  Naaman  (2  Kings  5  : 1  ff.). 


216  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

Restricted  to  a  Special  Group 
It  will  be  noticed  that  with  the  exception  of  the  last 
all  of  these  were  in  aid  of  some  member  of  the  order 
of  the  prophets  or  of  some  one  who  had  conspicuously 
favoured  the  prophet  himself.  This  is  so  marked  that 
it  must  be  given  value  as  a  feature  of  the  case.  Re- 
member that  it  was  a  time  of  very  wide  defection. 
These  "  Sons  of  the  prophets,"  whatever  their  other 
characteristics,  were  certainly  a  body  of  people  loyally 
attached  to  Jehovah  in  the  midst  of  the  defection. 
These  therefore  specially  represent  the  "  Friends  "  to 
whom  God  might  be  expected  to  show  Himself 
friendly.  That  He  does  single  these  out  for  the  almost 
exclusive  objects  of  His  favours  marks  these  events  as 
not  general  benevolence  but  acts  of  personal  fellowship 
and  friendship  with  distinct  meaning. 

The  healing  of  ISTaaman  was  a  conspicuous  event,  and 
it  was  not  done  for  any  member  or  friend  of  the  pro- 
phetic order.  In  this  respect  it  is  an  exception  among 
the  private  miracles.  But  it  is  an  exception  that  proves 
the  rule  or  impresses  the  same  lesson  that  all  the 
others  do. 

It  is  not  done  to  one  of  the  prophetic  order  who  were 
faithful  to  Jehovah,  but  neither  is  it  done  to  one  of  the 
other  people  of  Israel  who  were  so  largely  unloyal.  It 
is  done  to  some  one  outside  of  Israel  entirely.  It 
looks  as  if  God  wanted  to  show  that  He  was  still  ac- 
cessible in  a  friendly  spirit  when  sought  by  others  be- 
sides those  in  the  prophetic  order,  but  purposely  refused 
to  do  the  friendly  act  to  those  who  had  specifically 
violated  the  laws  of  friendship  by  their  disloyalty, 


ELIJAH  217 

and  went  outside  entirely  to  find  some  one  to  do  the 
act  to. 

Notice  that  Jesus  uses  this  incident  and  that  of  the 
widow  of  Sarepta  to  point  this  very  lesson  (Luke  4 : 
25-27),  illustrating  the  fact  that  Jesus  could  not  do  the 
acts  of  blessing  and  friendship  He  wished  to  do  to  His 
old  neighbours  who  ought  to  have  been  His  best  friends 
but  had  to  go  outside  to  other  strange  communities  to 
do  them. 

After  the  death  of  Elisha  there  is  the  account  of  a 
dead  man  raised  to  life  when  his  body  touched  the 
bones  of  the  dead  prophet  (2  Kings  13 :  21).  Such  an 
incident  as  that  would  be  calculated  to  bring  very 
vividly  again  before  the  mind  and  feelings  of  the  peo- 
ple the  departed  prophet  and  all  that  his  life  and 
teaching  stood  for.  It  is  that  aspect  which  gives  it 
its  appropriateness. 

Later  Instances 
From  this  time  on,  during  the  following  seven  long 
centuries  we  have  only  about  half  a  dozen  records  of 
supernatural  incidents.  There  were  two  or  three  in 
the  time  of  Hezekiah,— his  healing  (2  Kings  20  :  1-7), 
the  sign  on  the  sun-dial  (vers.  8,  9),  and  his  deliverance 
from  the  Assyrian  army  (2  Kings  19  :  35,  36).  King 
ITzziah  was  smitten  with  leprosy  for  sacrilege  (2  Chron. 
26 :  16-19).  There  were  two  or  three  in  the  Babylonian 
captivity, — Daniel's  interpretation  of  dreams  (Dan.  2 : 
25  ff.),  his  deliverance  in  the  lion's  den  (Dan.  6  :  16-23), 
the  deliverance  of  the  three  men  in  the  fire  (Dan.  3 : 
21-27),  and  the  handwriting  on  the  wall  (Dan.  5). 


218  THE  SUPEEXATUEAL 

The  second  and  third  of  these  well  typify  the  condition 
of  the  faithful  Jews  in  the  midst  of  enemies,  and  would 
be  well  calculated  to  assure  and  comfort  their  hearts 
with  the  feeling  that  their  mighty  friend  could  and 
would  still  protect  them.  They  were  very  appropriate 
to  the  situation.  The  interpretation  of  dreams  would 
more  appropriately  be  considered  in  connection  with 
prophecy.  The  handwriting  on  the  wall  spoke  doom 
to  the  kingdom  of  Babylon,  but  that  doom  was  closely 
connected  with  their  opposition  to  the  people  of  Je- 
hovah and  was  a  means  to  their  rescue  later. 

The  time  of  Hezekiah  was  a  time  of  great  revival  and 
return  to  God  after  serious  defection.  The  supernatu- 
ral acts  were  all  favours  to  King  Hezekiah  who  was 
the  prime  mover  in  this  return  to  God.  There  were 
two  quiet  private  favours,  the  healing  of  his  disease 
and  the  sun-dial  sign,  and  one  conspicuous  public  fa- 
vour, the  relief  by  the  destruction  of  the  Assyrian 
army. 

The  occasion  was  certainly  important  enough  to 
warrant  some  display  of  special  friendliness  by  God 
who  was  so  much  interested  in  the  return  of  the  people 
to  friendly  fellowship.  Hezekiah  was  the  representa- 
tive man  to  whom  it  was  appropriate  that  the  favours 
should  be  shown.  And  the  acts  done  were  quite  ap- 
propriate also. 

Perhaps  they  were  not  exactly  what  we  would  have 
done  to  exhibit  approval  under  the  circumstances,  espe- 
cially the  first  two, — the  healing  and  the  sun-dial  sign. 
We  would  have  had  something  more  flashy  and  recon- 
dite.    But  that  was  the  kind  God  wanted.    For  He 


ELIJAH  219 

considered  the  homely,  sympathetic,  human  quality  of 
His  kindness  the  most  important  thing  of  all.  That 
was  the  thing  best  adapted  to  arouse  in  us  the  kind  of 
feelings  He  wished  us  to  have  towards  Him. 

Thus  from  beginning  to  end  we  see  that  these  special 
incidents  in  the  Bible  to  which  we  give  the  name 
Miracles  have  all  one  character  and  one  motive.  They 
are  all  merely  acts  of  God  done  personally  to  individ- 
uals or  to  one  single  nation.  The  motive  of  them  all 
is  just  to  show  kindness  and  friendship  to  some  one 
whom  God  wished  to  befriend.  In  every  case  they 
came  at  an  appropriate  time  when  it  was  important 
that  such  a  display  of  God's  personal  friendship  should 
be  seen.  And  in  every  case  the  nature  of  the  act  was 
quite  appropriate  for  the  purpose  God  had  in  view. 
It  is  all  just  God  the  great  friend  showing  practical 
friendship  to  persons  He  had  pledged  Himself  to  be- 
friend, and  the  intention  of  it  all  is  to  invite  and  draw 
us  also  to  enter  into  that  same  relation  of  friendship 
with  Him. 


VI 

PEOPHECY 

THE  next  form  of  the  supernatural  to  consider 
is  Prophecy.  In  considering  this  the  main 
problem  is  not  how  future  events  could  be  fore- 
told or  if  it  is  possible  or  reasonable  that  they  should 
be.  Foretelling  future  events  is  merely  an  incidental 
detail  in  prophecy.  In  our  colloquial  usage  the  term 
prophecy  has  come  to  be  confined  chiefly  to  that  one 
matter  of  foretelling  future  events,  but  the  prophecy 
of  the  Bible  is  something  far  broader  than  that.  Fore- 
telling the  future  does  occur  more  or  less  in  the  proph- 
ecies, but  it  is  chiefly  for  practical  effect  in  warning 
and  encouragement,  and  merely  incidental  in  most 
cases. 

The  prophet  was  a  man  who  professed  to  speak 
something  which  he  had  received  directly  from  God. 
He  claimed  that  God  had  put  into  his  mind  certain 
thoughts  which  he  merely  proclaimed  to  the  people. 
The  essential  part  of  prophecy  then  was  God  communi- 
cating thoughts  to  men.  If  that  really  occurred  then 
prophecy  was  a  fact. 

It  is  easy  to  juggle  with  words  and  obscure  a  defini- 
tion. We  may  say  that  all  truth  is  really  God's 
thoughts,  that  all  discovery  is  merely  receiving  God's 
thoughts    or    thinking    God's    thoughts    after    Him. 

220 


PEOPHECY  221 

Therefore  any  high,  advanced  thinking  might  be  called 
receiving  God's  thoughts,  and  so  prophecy.  But  this 
is  merely  an  evasion.  In  practice  we  recognize  certain 
definite  ways  of  getting  new  thoughts.  We  may  get 
new  thoughts  by  perceiving  and  studying  things.  We 
may  get  new  thoughts  by  putting  our  previous  thoughts 
together  and  reasoning  about  them.  But  we  may  also 
get  new  thoughts  without  either  of  these  processes  if 
some  other  person  has  the  thoughts  or  knowledge,  and 
communicates  it  to  us  by  speaking,  writing  or  some 
other  way. 

This  last  is  what  we  mean  here  with  regard  to  God. 
He  had  a  thought  that  He  wished  some  man  to  have 
and  actively  communicated  that  thought  to  him  in  the 
same  sense  that  another  man  would  communicate  his 
thoughts  to  him.  The  question  is, — has  God  done 
that  ?  Did  He  do  it  as  He  is  represented  to  do  it  in 
the  Bible? 

Inspiration 

While  that  is  what  we  must  consider  prophecy  to  be 
if  we  follow  the  traditional  conception,  there  is  another 
somewhat  similar  process  that  we  ought  to  consider  in 
this  same  connection.  We  may  conceive  that  God 
wishes  a  man  to  have  a  certain  thought  or  conviction. 
He  does  not  communicate  it  to  him  directly  but  He 
intentionally  and  specifically  brings  such  influence  to 
bear  upon  his  mind  that  by  the  processes  of  his  own  in- 
vestigation and  thinking  he  gets  that  thought  or  con- 
viction. 

The  influences  that  God  thus  brought  to  bear  on  the 
man's  mind  might  be  greater  or  less,  they  might  be 


222  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

supernatural  or  all  natural  in  form.  This  would  not 
be  particularly  significant.  The  only  important  condi- 
tion is  that  God  specifically  wishes  a  given  man  to  get 
a  certain  thought  and  He  takes  definite  personal  meas- 
ures of  some  kind  which  are  instrumental  in  his  getting 
that  thought.  He  would  not  have  gotten  it  without 
this  special  something  that  God  did,  and  God  did  that 
something  specifically  for  the  purpose  of  causing  that 
man  to  get  that  thought. 

This  differs  from  prophecy  in  the  point  that  God 
does  not  communicate  any  thought  as  a  thought  to  the 
man,  and  the  man  gets  no  thought  that  he  has  not 
worked  out  by  his  own  mind  processes.  But  it  re- 
sembles prophecy  in  the  point  that  God  wishes  the 
man  to  have  the  given  thought  and  takes  definite 
special  steps  to  that  end  so  that  the  man  gets  a  thought 
that  he  would  not  have  gotten  if  God  had  not  done 
what  He  did  to  make  him  get  it. 

This  latter  process  is  what  is  very  commonly  con- 
ceived as  the  meaning  of  the  term  Inspiration.  For 
the  most  part  what  is  said  below  as  to  the  meaning 
and  purpose  of  prophecy  would  apply  equally  to  this 
also. 

Many,  perhaps,  would  wish  to  resolve  all  prophecy 
into  a  matter  of  this  nature  and  define  it  in  this  way. 
They  seem  to  imagine  that  a  process  of  this  kind  would 
be  a  less  objectionable  kind  of  supernatural  than  that 
which  is  assumed  in  the  ordinary  conception  of  prophecy 
as  an  actual  communication  of  thoughts  by  God.  It 
is  possible  to  conceive  that  this  kind  of  helpful  stim- 
ulating and  directive  influence  by  God  may  be  going 


PEOPHECY  223 

on  now  in  the  common  experience  of  Christians, 
unperceived  but  none  the  less  real.  It  would  there- 
fore by  its  frequency  and  present  occurrence  lay  claim 
to  being  a  part  of  natural  law  and  not  supernatural 
at  all. 

But  it  would  be  altogether  a  logical  blunder  to  count 
this  kind  of  a  process  less  supernatural  or  easier  to 
justify  than  the  other  actual  communication  of  thoughts 
consciously  recognized  to  be  received  from  without  and 
from  God.  If  this  unconscious  manipulating,  stimulat- 
ing and  guiding  of  men's  minds  is  a  specific  personal 
act  of  God  it  is  most  distinctly  a  supernatural  act, 
whether  it  is  recognized  as  such  or  not.  And  if  it  is 
done  solely  to  get  some  truth  discovered  that  men 
would  not  otherwise  have  discovered,  it  is  a  super- 
natural act  that  would  be  difficult  to  justify  or  account 
for  without  impeaching  God's  competency  in  the  evolu- 
tion process. 

Mental  facts  are  just  as  much  a  part  of  nature  and 
just  as  much  controlled  by  the  evolution  process  and 
natural  law  as  physical  facts  are.  Any  intrusion  or 
special  manipulating  of  them  is  just  as  supernatural  as 
if  it  were  visible  material  things  that  were  being  ma- 
nipulated. If  for  instance  God  brought  any  influence  to 
bear  personally  and  intentionally  upon  the  mind  of  the 
Persian  king  to  lead  him  to  permit  the  Israelites  to  go 
back  from  Babylon  it  would  be  in  every  respect  just 
as  supernatural  as  if  He  by  great  spectacular  plagues 
and  signs  delivered  them  from  the  king  of  Egypt.  If 
God  personally  contributed  any  mental  stimulus  or 
brought  any  influence  intentionally  to   bear  on  the 


224  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

mind  of  Isaiah  to  widen  his  vision  and  deepen  his 
insight  so  that  he  could  read  more  correctly  the  signs 
of  the  times  and  give  valuable  advice  to  the  people,  it 
would  not  be  in  any  respect  less  supernatural  than  it 
would  be  for  God  to  make  a  great  voice  sound  from 
the  cloud  on  Mount  Sinai  speaking  the  Ten  Command- 
ments. 

The  Supernatural  Must  be  Evident  in  Order 
to  be  Justifiable 

It  is  a  naive  kind  of  ignorance  which  counts  that  if  a 
supernatural  act  can  be  so  sly  and  inconspicuous  as  to 
slip  through  without  being  noticed  we  must  let  it  go  un- 
challenged. Keally  a  supernatural  act  that  was  un- 
recognized as  such  or  unconsciously  received  would  be 
harder  to  account  for  and  justify  than  one  that  was 
open  and  evident.  It  is  precisely  through  its  being 
recognized  as  a  supernatural  act  that  it  finds  its  justifi- 
cation by  becoming  a  contribution  to  fellowship.  We 
have  seen  that  it  is  impossible  to  justify  any  super- 
natural act  done  primarily  to  improve  men's  condition 
or  teach  some  undiscovered  truth  or  for  any  other 
merely  utilitarian  purpose  since  it  would  impeach  God's 
competence  as  Creator.  The  only  ground  on  which 
we  can  justify  and  account  for  any  supernatural  act  is 
as  an  act  of  fellowship  done  by  God,  and  in  order  to 
have  value  as  fellowship  of  course  it  must  be  recognized 
as  a  special  personal  act  of  God,  that  is  as  super- 
natural. 

A  definite  communication  received  and  recognized 
as  being  from  God,  just  such  as  it  is  traditionally  con- 


PEOPHEOY  225 

sidered  the  prophets  experienced,  would  be  a  most 
natural  and  appropriate  act  of  fellowship  and  so  per- 
fectly justifiable  whether  any  moral,  social  or  political 
benefit  came  from  it  or  not.  But  an  unconscious  and 
unrecognized  heightening  and  directing  of  some  man's 
thought  powers  to  lead  him  to  discover  truths  just  be- 
cause they  were  of  great  economic  importance  would 
be  an  interposition  that  it  would  be  very  difficult  to 
justify. 

Such  heightening  and  directing  of  men's  thought 
processes  as  is  assumed  in  inspiration  could  indeed  be 
justified  if  it  was  done  so  as  to  be  evident  and  was 
popularly  recognized  and  believed  to  be  really  the  work 
of  God.  In  that  case  it  would  have  the  same  value  as 
prophecy  and  thereby  be  justifiable.  Historically  just 
that  kind  of  help  from  God  has  been  believed  by  Chris- 
tians to  have  been  granted  in  connection  with  the  books 
of  the  Bible,  and  that  help  so  granted  has  made  a 
strong  impression  on  men's  minds  as  an  act  of  fellow- 
ship. So  assuming  that  such  help  was  really  so  given 
all  conditions  are  fulfilled  to  constitute  it  real  fellow- 
ship and  thus  fully  justify  it.  But  if  it  had  not  been 
so  believed  and  recognized  as  a  work  of  God  there 
would  be  no  grounds  on  which  we  could  well  justify  it. 
For  it  is  precisely  its  effect  on  men's  minds  that  consti- 
tutes it  fellowship  and  so  justifiable. 

The  traditional  view,  therefore,  of  both  prophecy 
and  inspiration  really  meets  the  requirements  of  sci- 
ence and  evolution  philosophy  far  better  than  any  of 
the  modern  attempts  that  have  been  made  to  improve 
or  replace  it. 


226  THE  SUPEKNATUBAL 

Didactic  Weitings 

It  is  under  this  latter  head,  or  Inspiration,  that  we 
may  consider  all  the  poetical  and  didactic  portions  of 
the  Old  Testament,  such  as  the  Psalms,  Proverbs,  Ec- 
clesiastes  or  Job,  to  be  entitled  to  be  called  super- 
natural. In  as  far  as  God  was  concerned  directly  or 
indirectly  in  assisting  in  their  production  and  is  frankly 
recognized  to  be  so,  they  are  a  contribution  to  the  one 
great  enterprise  of  fellowship.  All  that  is  said  about 
the  miracles  or  prophecy  would  apply  equally  to  them. 
As  far  as  they  teach,  warn  or  inspire  men  to  better 
living  it  is  an  act  of  kindness,  and  an  act  of  kindness 
that  God  was  concerned  in,  and  so  a  contribution  of 
friendship  and  fellowship  by  Him  to  us. 

It  is  a  significant  circumstance  and  unquestionably  a 
fact  that  in  the  use  Christians  in  past  generations  have 
made  of  these  compositions  the  thought  of  their  origin 
being  from  God  has  been  a  paramount  factor  in  the 
influence  which  the  writings  have  had  upon  them.  It 
is  that  which  has  really  carried  to  them  far  more 
benefit  and  comfort  than  they  would  have  received 
from  the  bare  intrinsic  substance  of  the  things  written. 
When  they  were  reading  them  they  felt  that  they  were 
reading  God's  word,  and  that  touch  with  God  has 
always  been  the  chief  value  of  the  Bible  to  the  Chris- 
tian heart. 

As  proof  of  this  we  may  notice  that  many  of  these 
same  precepts  and  truths  can  be  found  in  the  writings 
of  Confucius,  Gautama,  Epictetus  and  other  religious 
teachers  and  sages,  but  we  have  nothing  like  the  same 
feeling  in  reading  them  there  that  we  have  in  reading 


PEOPHECY  227 

them  in  their  setting  in  the  Bible  with  all  the  atmos- 
phere of  divine  nearness  surrounding  them  there.  His- 
torically it  has  always  been  the  fellowship  touch  with 
God  believed  to  be  in  them  which  has  really  consti- 
tuted the  greater  part  of  their  power  and  value. 

Credibility  of  Prophecy 
We  need  hardly  stop  to  go  into  the  question  of  the 
possibility  of  such  communication  as  is  implied  in 
prophecy.  One  of  the  startling  discoveries  of  recent 
years  is  the  possibility  of  direct  thought  transference 
from  mind  to  mind  independent  of  physical  means. 
Naturally  a  discovery  so  revolutionary  finds  many  men 
still  sceptical,  as  is  true  also  of  many  other  important 
scientific  facts.  But  when  scores  of  men  in  the  very 
highest  rank  of  scientists  declare  unequivocally  their 
belief  that  the  reception  of  thoughts  or  mental  influ- 
ence by  one  mind  directly  from  another  mind  is  a 
demonstrated  fact  we  are  at  least  in  good  scientific 
company  when  we  presume  that  a  man's  mind  may  re- 
ceive thoughts  equally  directly  from  the  mind  of  God. 
We  may  notice  also  that  in  the  investigations  of  this 
phenomenon  of  direct  thought  transference  it  is  ac- 
cepted as  a  rule  that  the  most  favourable  condition  to 
receive  such  influence  is  that  condition  of  mind  that  is 
called  by  such  names  as  "  Secondary,"  "  Subconscious  " 
or  the  like,  and  which  is  seen  in  hypnotism  and  in  the 
spontaneous  states  of  trance,  catalepsy  vision  and  the 
like.  The  state  of  dreaming  also  is  closely  allied  to 
these.  And  just  these  states  of  trance,  vision  or  dream 
were  the  states  in  which  most  commonly  these  prophets 


228  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

professed  that  they  received  their  communications  from 
God. 

From  the  standpoint  of  their  possibility  or  plausibil- 
ity we  need  have  no  embarrassment  therefore  about 
the  prophecies.  If  we  believe  in  a  living,  thinking 
God,  He  not  only  could  give  these  communications  to 
men,  but  science,  under  some  such  term  as  Telepathy 
or  Thought-transference,  is  just  now  insisting  upon  the 
existence  of  parallel  or  equivalent  phenomena  occur- 
ring now  in  the  field  of  natural  life,  occurring  moreover 
under  conditions  very  similar  to  those  in  which  these 
ancient  prophecies  were  received. 

But  really  the  serious  objection  against  the  occurrence 
of  prophecy  is  not  that  God  could  not  but  that  He 
would  not  do  such  things.  Especially  if  the  com- 
munications were  for  practical  effect  in  teaching  and 
training  the  people  there  are  most  weighty  objections 
against  supposing  that  God  should  do  a  supernatural 
act  for  such  a  purpose. 

The  whole  wide  book  of  nature  is  God's  teaching. 
The  whole  course  of  evolution  and  all  the  movement  of 
history  is  a  course  of  training  and  discipline.  These 
are  the  means  that  God  designed  and  provided  expressly 
for  the  purpose  of  teaching  and  training,  and  wonder- 
fully effective  means  they  have  proved  to  be.  It  is 
inconceivable  that  after  providing  means  so  very 
efficient  to  produce  these  results  He  should  think  it 
necessary  right  in  the  midst  of  the  process  to  break  in 
by  special  interpositions  of  supernatural  teaching  and 
training  to  secure  the  same  object. 

We  have  already  considered  this  same  question  at 


PEOPHECY  229 

some  length  with  reference  to  the  miracles.  We  saw 
that  they  could  not  be  justified  if  given  merely  to 
benefit  the  world  or  to  certify  and  attest  some  teaching. 
The  miracles  all  found  their  justification  in  their 
intrinsic  character  as  acts  of  kindness  done  by  God  to 
individuals  for  the  sake  of  fellowship.  It  is  there  also 
that  we  must  look  for  the  justification  of  prophecy. 
It  is  all  to  be  interpreted  as  fellowship  bestowed  by 
God,  and  therein  it  finds  its  justification  and  reason- 
ableness. 

But  it  may  be  objected  that  the  very  substance  of 
the  prophecy  is  teaching.  That  is  its  intrinsic  character. 
It  would  seem  here  as  though  God  was  certainly  break- 
ing in  by  a  special  interposition  to  do  what  He  had 
made  full  provision  for  in  the  machinery  of  nature. 

This  would  be  so  if  these  prophecies  stood  alone  with 
this  as  their  only  meaning.  There  would  be  some 
reason  for  this  charge  if  for  instance  they  had  been 
given  like  the  Mormon  Bible  professed  to  be  given, 
miraculously  written  on  plates  of  gold  and  left  for 
some  one  to  find  and  proclaim  to  the  world  at  large. 
Or  again  to  some  extent  there  would  be  reason  for  the 
charge  if  these  prophecies  had  not  been  confined  to 
Israel  but  had  been  given  sporadically  and  independ- 
ently to  individuals  scattered  through  all  the  nations. 

Place  in  God's  Plan 

That  very  question  is  often  asked.    "Why  do  we  not 

equally  have  the  same  kind  of  prophecies  now  ?    Why 

were    these    prophecies    confined  to  the  one  people 

Israel?    If  God  really  does  such  things  why  would 


230  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

He  not  do  them  equally  for  all  nations  and  for  people 
of  the  present  time  as  much  as  for  that  one  ancient 
nation  long  ago  ? 

Eight  there  is  the  essential  fact  and  the  key  to  the 
whole  problem.  These  prophecies  are  not  isolated, 
independent  facts  but  are  parts  and  necessary  parts  of 
a  great  movement  and  system.  The  specialness  of 
Israel  was  an  essential  feature  of  the  movement.  It  is 
entirely  in  that  they  were  given  to  this  special  people 
Israel  that  these  prophecies  find  their  justification. 

God  did  not  interpose  to  super  naturally  give  teaching 
or  training  for  the  world  that  the  world  could  not  have 
gotten  otherwise.  The  real  character  and  genesis  of  the 
prophecies  is  not  that  but  something  else.  As  an  act  of 
fellowship  God  had  assumed  and  was  carrying  forward 
a  specialized  relation  of  friendship  and  communion 
with  this  particular  nation  Israel.  In  pursuance  of  that 
fellowship  He  did  various  appropriate  things. 

One  thing  always  appropriate  for  fellowship  is 
conversation,  communicating  ideas  from  one  to  the 
other.  We  carry  on  conversation  just  for  the  social 
touch  and  fellowship).  That  is  what  all  the  prophecies 
are.  Of  course  it  does  not  make  it  any  less  essentially 
an  act  of  fellowship  that  the  ideas  communicated  are 
profitable,  as  teaching,  training  or  in  some  other  way. 
All  God's  conversations  we  may  be  sure  will  consist  of 
matter  that  is  useful  and  instructive,  and  yet  it  is  none 
the  less  truly  conversation  for  fellowship's  sake.  That 
is  the  fundamental  purpose  for  which  it  was  given.  It 
was  not  to  reveal  to  men  new  truths  but  to  make  them 
feel  His  presence  with  them  and  yearning  care  for  them. 


PEOPHECY  231 

Conversation  Begun  at  Sinai 

At  the  very  beginning  of  His  fellowship  with  them 
as  a  nation  God  spoke  to  them  at  Sinai  with  an  audible 
voice  that  they  could  near  (Deut.  4 :  12),  just  as  they 
would  hear  the  voice  of  a  friend  in  conversation, 
though  of  course  with  the  majesty  and  volume  befit- 
ting the  circumstances. 

That  the  words  spoken  at  Sinai  were  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments is  not  the  important  thing,  for  there  was 
no  new  revelation  in  any  of  those  commandments. 
There  was  nothing  in  them,  at  least  in  the  ethical  part, 
but  what  had  been  recognized  and  enforced  as  law  in  all 
that  region  for  hundreds  of  years.  What  was  signifi- 
cant was  that  God  was  personally  speaking  to  them. 
Even  though  the  words  He  spoke  were  well  known 
and  recognized  principles,  we  often  open  conversation 
with  a  friend  by  some  obvious,  commonplace  remark. 
God  was  so  to  speak,  opening  conversation  with  them 
as  an  act  of  fellowship.  That  was  the  real  epoch- 
making  significance  of  Sinai. 

Was  then  that  conversation  stopped  as  soon  as 
begun  ?  Through  all  the  succeeding  hundreds  of  years 
in  which  He  still  wished  them  to  feel  Him  in  personal 
fellowship  with  them  was  there  no  further  continuation 
of  that  conversation  ? 

There  are  many  and  obvious  reasons  why  a  frequent 
repetition  of  the  stupendous  voice  of  Sinai  would 
be  neither  appropriate  nor  helpful  to  them  (Deut. 
5  :  23-28  ;  18  :  16).  But  it  would  be  both  appropriate 
and  helpful  if  they  could  have  cause  to  feel  that  that 
conversation  was  still  being  carried  on  and  God  was 


232  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

still  continuously  in  friendly  conversation  and  social 
touch  with  them,  provided  it  could  be  done  in  some 
way  that  would  not  interfere  with  the  natural  normal- 
ness  of  their  daily  lives. 

Can  we  think  of  a  way  that  would  be  more  natural 
and  appropriate  and  less  obtrusive  than  the  way  repre- 
sented here,  namely,  by  God  in  a  way  that  we  now 
know  is  a  natural  way  by  which  thoughts  can  be  com- 
municated directly  from  one  mind  to  another,  com- 
municating thoughts  to  certain  individuals  of  their 
number  who  in  turn  passed  them  on  to  all  the  rest. 
In  other  words  by  this  order  of  prophets  and  institu- 
tion of  prophecy,  for  there  seems  to  have  been  a  suc- 
cession of  these  prophets  almost  all  through  their 
history. 

In  this  way  on  God's  part  the  conversation  begun  on 
Sinai  was  continued,  and  all  down  their  history  the 
friendly  fellowship  of  conversation  was  kept  up.  In 
its  right  setting  we  see  thus  that  prophecy  was  not  only 
a  justifiable  thing,  but  it  was  a  natural  and  necessary 
thing  if  human  fellowship  with  God  is  a  reality,  and 
if  God  in  the  Biblical  movement  was  exhibiting  a  great 
movement  of  fellowship  carried  on  in  the  way  that 
human  fellowship  is  ordinarily  carried  on. 

Continuous  Order  of  Prophets 
We  commonly  think  of  the  prophets  as  the  six- 
teen men  who  wrote  the  prophetic  books  of  the 
Bible  with  a  few  others,  such  as  Elijah,  Elisha,  Nathan 
and  Samuel.  This  is  as  great  a  mistake  as  it  would 
be  to  think  of  Christian   preachers  as  consisting  of 


PEOPHEOY  233 

only  a  few  great  men,  such  as  Fenelon,  Spurgeon, 
Moody  and  the  like,  whose  published  sermons  have  be- 
come classics. 

The  prophets  were  an  order  of  religious  men  some- 
what analogous  to  the  clergy  of  our  time.  They 
flourished  at  least  for  many  centuries.  Keferences  to 
them  in  the  Bible  are  frequent  either  by  the  term 
Prophets  or  "  Sons  of  the  Prophets."  They  certainly 
were  in  existence  in  Samuel's  time  (1  Sam.  19  :  20). 
The  passage  in  Deuteronomy  18:15-18  along  with 
others  may  be  interpreted  to  mean  that  the  order  of 
prophets  was  instituted  and  continued  right  from  the 
time  of  the  founding  of  the  nation,  and  they  were  in  a 
sense  the  successors  of  Moses  himself.  We  must  notice 
also  that  it  is  expressly  indicated  in  that  passage  that 
the  meaning  of  these  prophets  was  the  same  as  the 
meaning  of  the  voice  from  Sinai.  That  voice  from 
Sinai  was  too  awesome  to  be  the  regular  method  of 
communication.  The  people  plead  for  something 
simpler  and  this  order  of  prophets  was  given  in  its 
stead  (Ex.  20  :  19  ;  Deut.  5  :  23  ff.). 

When  considering  the  Old  Testament  miracles  the 
question  naturally  suggested  itself,  if  the  meaning  of 
this  supernatural  regime  was  fellowship  granted  by 
God  to  men  why  was  it  not  more  continuous  and 
frequent  ?  Three  or  four  groups  of  a  dozen  or  so  of 
these  miracles  or  fellowship  acts,  coming  at  intervals 
of  two  or  three  hundred  years  apart,  would  not  seem 
to  indicate  a  very  close  relation  of  fellowship  on  God's 
part  (cf.  page  210). 

If  we  are  to  consider  that  the  whole  Israelite  move- 


234  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

ment  was  a  movement  to  impress  God's  sympathetic 
friendliness,  some  species  of  continuous  personal  inter- 
course and  fellowship  by  God  with  them  would  seem 
to  be  called  for.  Just  that  is  furnished  by  this  order 
of  prophets,  and  furnished  in  the  most  appropriate  and 
helpful  way. 

As  expressed  in  the  passage  in  Deuteronomy,  the 
visible  appearance  and  audible  voice  of  God  on  Sinai 
was  too  awful  and  overpowering  and  neutralized  the 
desired  effect  of  social  friendliness.  But  by  this 
method  the  voice  came  from  a  man  "  of  their  breth- 
ren "just  like  themselves,  though  the  communications 
were  from  God.  This  man  received  the  communica- 
tions from  God  in  a  quiet,  unobtrusive  way,  a  way 
which  we  now  find  to  be  quite  in  line  with  natural 
processes,  and  which  at  that  time  was  considered  ap- 
propriate for  a  communication  from  God. 

All  down  through  the  history  of  Israel  we  find  this 
succession  of  prophets, — of  men  who  were  the  medium 
through  which  God  spoke  to  the  people  and  kept  up 
His  fellowship  of  conversation  with  them.  That  they 
were  quite  numerous  seems  to  be  indicated  by  the  fact 
that  even  in  the  dark  times  of  apostasy  under  Ahab 
the  one  hundred  of  them  that  Obadiah  saved  (1  Kings 
18  :  13)  was  only  a  remnant  from  the  great  number 
that  Jezebel  killed.  A  little  later  Elijah  visits  com- 
munities of  them  in  Bethel  and  Jericho  (2  Kings  2  : 
3-5),  and  the  company  in  Jericho  was  so  large  that 
fifty  men  from  them  went  to  seek  for  the  body  of  the 
translated  Elijah.  Even  in  Samuel's  time  they  were 
so  numerous  and  well  known  that  when  Saul  acted  in 


PBOPHECY  235 

a  peculiar  manner  the  people  immediately  concluded 
that  he  had  become  one  of  them  (1  Sam.  19  :  20-24). 

Divine  Kevelation  of  Teaching 
But  was  the  office  of  these  prophets,  as  we  have 
claimed,  to  afford  social  touch  and  fellowship  from 
God  to  men?  Was  not  their  office  really  that  of 
teachers,  to  reveal  useful  knowledge  and  instruction 
from  God  to  men,  and  thus  an  unnecessary  irruption 
into  the  evolution  process  ? 

As  has  been  already  noted,  social  conversation,  even 
if  its  main  purpose  is  entirely  social  friendliness  and 
fellowship,  must  be  about  something.  If  from  a  good 
and  wise  man  it  will  likely  be  something  useful.  Cer- 
tainly conversations  or  communications  from  God  will 
have  as  subject  matter  something  profitable  even  though 
the  purpose  that  inspired  it  is  entirely  the  wish  to  show 
social  friendliness.  Indeed  the  helpfulness  of  the  con- 
versation will  just  so  much  more  make  it  an  appropriate 
act  of  friendly  fellowship. 

That  it  cannot  reasonably  be  considered  essentially 
an  enterprise  of  teaching  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  at 
least  as  regards  merely  ethical  matters  of  man's  con- 
duct to  man  there  is  very  little  if  any  new  teaching 
given.  The  things  denounced  by  the  prophets  as  sin 
are  such  things  as  murder,  adultery,  drunkenness,  theft, 
oppression,  cruelty,  falsehood  and  the  like.  All  of  these 
had  been  recognized  as  evils  by  all  the  nations  for  ages. 
The  prophets  merely  warn  and  denounce  the  people  for 
engaging  in  these  known  sins.  In  all  their  denuncia- 
tions of  sin  they  refer  to  the  evils  denounced  as  al- 


236  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

ready  known  to  be  sin,  rarely  if  ever  setting  forth 
any  new  ethical  principle  or  precept  which  they  com- 
mand to  be  obeyed. 

What  is  new,  or  at  least  fresh,  is  their  vivid  repre- 
sentation of  God's  attitude  towards  all  these  things, 
and  their  bringing  to  bear  all  the  weight  of  God's  per- 
sonality against  them.  This  is  the  thing  that  is  relied 
on  to  produce  the  reforming,  elevating  effect  upon  the 
people,  and  this  is  something  that  lies  distinctly  within 
the  sphere  of  fellowship. 

Personal  Atmosphere 

Almost  wherever  we  take  up  the  prophecies  for  ex- 
amination we  are  impressed  with  the  fact  that  the 
dominant  note  is  not  revelation  of  doctrine  but  per- 
sonal appeal.  There  is  much  reference  to  ethical  and 
theological  truth  indeed,  to  sins  against  men  and  sins 
against  God,  but  it  is  always  referred  to  not  as  revela- 
tion of  new  principles  and  new  laws,  but  as  reference 
to  things  they  knew  to  be  wrong  and  the  mere  mention 
of  which  ought  to  touch  them  with  shame.  The  whole 
force  of  the  appeal  depends  on  the  fact  that  they  will 
spontaneously  recognize  these  things  as  wrong,  and 
that  the}r  knew  or  ought  to  have  known  that  they 
were  doing  wrong  when  they  did  them. 

But  the  one  most  significant  thing  is  the  intensely 
personal  tone  that  dominates  it  all.  It  is  the  impas- 
sioned pleading  of  a  friend  with  a  wayward  friend.  It 
is  the  protest  of  slighted  friendship.  It  is  the  appeal 
of  a  lover  for  a  love  that  he  has  a  right  to  expect  and 
that  his  heart  yearns  for.     He  has  lavished  his  friend- 


PKOPHECY  237 

ship,  favour  and  care,  and  Israel  does  not  reciprocate 
with  answering  love  and  loyalty  but  chooses  the  fellow- 
ship of  other  friends  and  lovers. 

Such  in  substance  is  the  note  that  is  sounded  again 
and  again  by  almost  every  one  of  the  prophets,  and 
which  may  be  counted  the  characteristic  theme  of  the 
whole  movement.  And  a  most  remarkable  feature  is 
the  way  that  frequently  the  most  severe  arraignment 
of  disloyalty  and  ingratitude  will  end  up  with  a  dec- 
laration of  entire  forgiveness  and  restoration  of  favour, 
and  this  too  apparently  without  anything  in  the  cir- 
cumstances to  warrant  or  call  for  it  (cf.  Ezek.  16 :  63  ff. ; 
Hos.  2:l±ff.,  etc.). 

It  is  all  indeed  a  revelation  in  the  truest  sense.  Not 
a  revelation  of  doctrines  and  ethical  principles,  but  a 
revelation  of  the  heart  of  God.  It  is  just  such  a  revela- 
tion as  ought  to  have  the  greatest  drawing  power  to 
bring  them  into  trusting  fellowship  with  Him.  And 
manifestly  that  is  the  one  great  purpose  for  which  it  is 
given. 

It  is  a  great  picture  of  God.  And  if  we  will  broaden 
our  minds  to  look  on  the  picture  as  a  whole  without 
distracting  attention  to  criticism  of  the  details  we  must 
see  that  it  is  the  same  picture  that  is  presented  by  the 
four  Gospels  of  the  New  Testament.  It  is  a  great 
friend  pained  by  the  sins  and  ruin  of  His  loved  friends, 
pleading  with  them  to  reform  and  return  to  Him,  and 
ever  breathing  the  promise  of  forgiveness  and  restored 
favour  and  peace.  Nor  is  the  feature  of  suffering 
atonement  entirely  lacking,  for  in  many  passages  we 
can  see  in  God's  deep  grief  and  pain  over  the  sins  of 


238  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

His  people  a  suggestive  parallel  of  Gethsemane  if  not 
even  of  Calvary  itself. 

Severe  Prophecies 

When  we  consider  the  text  of  many  of  the  proph- 
ecies, however,  a  rather  severe  difficulty  seems  to  arise. 
We  have  claimed  that  all  the  supernatural  was  a  per- 
sonal friendly  fellowship  movement  by  God  to  win 
men  into  a  state  of  trusting  fellowship  with  Him.  JSut 
a  large  part  of  the  prophecies  consists  of  denunciations 
and  threats  of  punishment.  How  can  this  be  made  to 
agree  with  the  conception  that  these  prophecies  and  all 
the  supernatural  are  acts  of  friendship,  have  their  mo- 
tive in  a  relation  of  personal  friendship  and  are  in- 
tended to  win  men  to  friendship  and  trust  ?  Are  they 
not  rather  the  acts  of  a  moral  governor,  a  supernatural 
interposition  for  the  sake  of,  if  not  punishment,  at  least 
discipline  and  government  ? 

In  answer  to  this  we  must  first  remind  ourselves  that 
friendship  is  not  always  a  matter  of  smooth  words  and 
flattery.  That  only  is  true  friendship  which  can  use 
severe  words  and  painful  messages  when  they  are 
necessary  and  helpful.  True  friendship  must  adhere 
to  the  truth.  He  would  be  the  truest  friend  to  Israel 
who  would  tell  them  plainly  of  the  sins  that  prevailed 
among  the  people  and  the  punishments  those  sins  would 
surely  bring. 

It  is  true  indeed  that  it  is  the  same  person  who  is 
speaking  in  prophecy  who  is  the  one  that  will  inflict 
the  punishment.  But  even  that  need  give  us  no  diffi- 
culty, for  we  must  remember  that  while  that  is  true 


PEOPHECY  239 

yet  the  inflicting  the  punishment  is  an  entirely  sepa- 
rate act  from  the  act  of  giving  warning  about  it,  and 
that  is  all  that  the  supernatural  prophecy  is.  That 
punishment  when  He  does  inflict  it  will  not  be  part  of 
His  supernatural  activity.  It  will  all  be  a  part  of  nat- 
ural law  as  we  have  seen.  It  will  be  the  work  of  God 
as  moral  governor,  and  God  does  not  need  to  resign 
His  place  as  moral  governor  in  order  that  He  may 
offer  to  act  as  a  friend.  The  only  supernatural  part  in 
the  transaction  is  the  warning  and  appeal,  and  that  is 
not  the  work  of  a  judge  or  governor  but  of  a  personal 
friend. 

We  must  remember  that  Jesus  is  declared  to  be  the 
one  who  will  judge  the  world  and  condemn  the  wicked, 
yet  no  one  questions  that  His  attitude  towards  all  men 
is  always  that  of  a  friend,  and  He  wept  over  Jerusa- 
lem to  think  of  the  punishment  that  was  coming  on  the 
people  for  their  sins.  It  is  the  same  heart  that  appears 
in  all  the  warnings  of  the  prophecies.  All  through 
even  the  severest  denunciations  there  is  evident  an  un- 
dertone of  sorrow  and  pain,  as  though  God  Himself 
were  suffering  over  His  people  both  for  their  sins  and 
for  the  punishments  those  sins  would  bring  upon  them. 

Not  all  of  prophecy,  however,  is  of  this  severe  char- 
acter by  any  means.  A  large  part  of  the  prophecies 
consist  of  comfort,  assurances  of  triumph  and  bright 
pictures  of  the  future  for  God's  people.  Moreover  the 
extant  texts  of  the  prophecies  must  constitute  an  ex- 
ceedingly small  proportion  of  the  vast  amount  of 
prophetic  utterance  by  the  large  body  of  prophets  all 
through  so  many  centuries.    Those  on  record  are  largely 


240  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

prophecies  called  out  by  some  pressing  crisis  in  the  his- 
tory, and  so  more  likely  to  be  of  this  severe,  denuncia- 
tory nature  than  the  great  mass  of  prophecies  given  in 
more  normal,  peaceful  times. 

"We  may  safely  claim,  then,  that  prophecy  as  well  as 
miracles  is  all  to  be  included  in  that  one  great  regime 
of  friendly  fellowship  by  God.  It  is  all  appropriate  to 
this  which  we  have  considered  the  main  purpose  of  the 
Bible.  It  is  all  a  service  of  friendship  and  fellowship. 
The  tone  of  it  all  is  a  continuous  appeal  by  God  to  the 
people  for  loyalty  and  trust.  It  is  a  very  necessary 
part  of  that  regime  as  it  furnishes  just  that  which  such 
a  special  relation  of  fellowship  as  God  proposed  posi- 
tively demanded  and  without  which  it  could  hardly 
be  said  to  exist,  namely,  a  continuous  intercourse  of 
friendly  conversation  by  God  with  the  people. 


VII 
NATIONAL  HISTORY 

THE  third  division  of  the  supernatural  in  our 
classification  comprises  the  historical  parts 
and  all.  the  remainder  of  the  Old  Testament. 
It  has  been  usual  to  consider  this  to  be  supernatural  in 
the  sense  that  all  the  writers  were  inspired  or  specially 
helped  and  guided  by  God  in  its  composition.  We  may 
perhaps  go  beyond  this  and  find  a  supernatural  quality 
in  the  very  substance  of  the  history  itself. 

We  have  defined  the  supernatural  to  be  activity  of 
God  personally  directed  to  definite  individuals,  in  dis- 
tinction from  His  general  activity  in  nature,  which  is 
directed  to  the  whole  universe  impartially.  In  this  his- 
tory much  of  the  activity  of  God  is  represented  to  be 
of  this  class,  personally  and  intentionally  directed  to 
certain  specific  individuals  or  to  a  particular  nation. 
Indeed  it  is  all  a  story  of  special  treatment  by  God  of 
the  nation  of  Israel  or  of  individuals  in  it.  That  is  the 
very  essence  of  the  plot  of  the  whole  narrative. 

In  addition  to  this  we  find  that  all  the  events  are 
represented  as  observed  from  God's  view-point.  The 
events  themselves  may  have  been  all  just  ordinary 
events  such  as  occurred  in  all  the  other  nations  and  are 
occurring  to  men  and  nations  now,  but  while  in  ordi- 
nary history  we  see  only  the  human  side  and  human 

241 


242  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

elements,  what  men  did,  suffered  or  desired,  in  this  case 
we  see  more,  for  we  see  God  having  an  active  part  in 
these  same  events.  We  see  God  behind  and  above, 
directing  and  using  them  all.  Especially  we  see  His 
plan  and  intention  with  regard  to  them.  This  possibly 
would  not  make  it  supernatural  within  the  definition 
that  we  are  using  here,  but  it  is  a  feature  that  has  a 
similar  value  in  that  it  gives  us  a  close  and  familiar 
view  of  God,  and  thus  contributes  to  the  feeling  of  per- 
sonal acquaintance  and  fellowship  with  Him. 

It  is  these  features  of  the  Book  that  are  the  most 
important.  Indeed  in  as  far  as  the  Bible  is  to  be  con- 
sidered a  book  of  religious  teaching  it  is  these  elements 
that  give  it  its  value.  It  has  been  another  way  of  view- 
ing and  estimating  the  Book  which  has  led  to  all  the 
trouble  and  embarrassment.  On  the  one  hand,  men 
have  considered  the  Bible  heroes  as  intended  to  be  re- 
ligious models  and  standards, — with  very  embarrassing 
results.  On  the  other  hand  many  have  considered  the 
whole  to  be  but  the  history  of  a  people  of  specially 
keen  religious  instincts  gradually  struggling  upward 
into  the  light,  practically  precluding  any  supernatural 
elements  in  it  at  all,  and  of  course  abrogating  any  re- 
ligious authority  or  normative  value. 

Bible  Characters  All  Normal  Men 
In  making  our  study  of  the  Old  Testament  history 
then  we  will  practically  disregard  any  special  moral  ex- 
cellence of  any  of  the  characters.  We  will  not  con- 
sider the  people  of  Israel  on  any  different  plane  mor- 
ally from  any  of  the  other  nations  of  the  time.     We 


NATIONAL  HISTOEY  243 

shall  not  attach  any  significance  specially  even  to  any 
higher  theological  conceptions  they  may  have  attained. 
The  people  portrayed,  or  some  of  them,  may  have  been 
distinctly  superior  in  many  respects  to  the  average  men 
of  the  age,  and  their  theological  outlook  may  have  come 
to  be  very  much  purer  and  higher,  but  that  is  not  the 
lesson  of  the  Book. 

The  real  lesson  intended  to  be  conveyed  is  to  portray 
how  God  acts  and  has  acted.  The  men  and  their  char- 
acters and  beliefs  are  merely  the  material  which  He 
uses  in  showing  His  activity  and  His  character.  The 
history  is  a  biography  of  God.  The  picture  is  a  picture 
of  God.  It  is  because  a  person  can  only  show  social 
characteristics  by  having  other  social  beings  with  whom 
he  interacts  that  all  these  human  persons  are  introduced 
as  the  groundwork  of  this  picture  of  God. 

That  the  picture  may  be  of  the  greatest  value  the 
persons  to  whom  God  affords  the  friendly  social  touch 
should  be  of  all  classes  and  all  moral  grades,  the  best 
of  them  with  many  faults  and  all  of  them  together  just 
fairly  averaging  up  to  the  general  standards  of  their 
age,  as  we  average  up  to  the  standards  of  our  age. 

This  then  is  the  nature  of  the  history  which  we  shall 
take  up  for  study.  It  is  a  book  of  the  biography  of 
God,  intended  to  portray  to  us  how  He  acts  towards 
all  classes  and  conditions  of  men  and  what  is  His  atti- 
tude towards  them,  and  also  what  is  the  attitude  He 
permits  and  invites  from  them  towards  Himself. 

In  making  this  study  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  remem- 
ber that  it  is  the  same  God  who  "  taught  "the  lion  to 
hunt  his  prey,"  and  made  the  great  sea  monsters  to 


244  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

tear  and  devour  one  another.  It  is  an  infinite  being 
whom  we  are  studying  who  does  His  work  with  refer- 
ence to  the  whole  universe  and  all  time.  It  will  clarify 
our  vision  much  to  thus  view  Him  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  evolutionist  and  view  the  parts  in  the  perspective 
of  the  whole.  We  must  abandon  the  idea  that  "  God 
only  loves  good  little  boys."  He  uses  and  is  in  inti- 
mate contact  with  all  both  bad  and  good.  Moreover 
He  strictly  adheres  to  His  original  creative  purpose  to 
leave  all  things  to  develop  naturally  and  live  their  lives 
on  the  level  to  which  they  have  attained,  and  He  uses 
them  all  just  on  that  level.  This  is  an  important  prin- 
ciple whose  neglect  has  led  to  many  of  the  difficulties 
in  reconciling  acts  attributed  to  God. 

There  is  a  style  of  interpretation  of  the  Bible  in 
which  God's  activities  are  supposed  to  be  like  a  stream 
of  pure  water  flowing  through  the  turbid,  corrupt 
stream  of  man's  history,  and  the  people  that  God  uses 
for  any  important  enterprise  are  for  that  reason  as- 
sumed to  be  necessarily  superior  if  not  faultless  men. 
This  is  not  at  all  the  theory  of  interpretation  which  we 
are  following  here. 

Lessons  from  God's  Dealings  with  Nations 

We  may  take  up  first  the  history  as  it  refers  to 
nations  and  second  as  it  refers  to  individuals.  We  will 
bear  in  mind  that  what  is  important  is  not  the  fortunes 
of  these  nations  or  their  reactions  with  each  other  but 
only  God's  attitude  towards  them  and  His  treatment 
of  them.  From  this  view-point  what  is  the  lesson 
which  the  Book  brings  ? 


NATIONAL  HISTOEY  245 

Our  first  thought  perhaps  would  be  that  the  lesson 
will  be  God's  beneficent  rule  over  the  nations,  and  His 
efforts  to  lead  them  up  to  higher  and  purer  national 
life.  The  natural  tendencies  of  men  and  nations  are 
towards  things  that  are  evil  and  corrupt.  Rulers  are 
ambitious  and  selfish  and  society  left  to  itself  soon 
becomes  cruel  and  bad.  God  constantly  sits  above  the 
movements  and  councils  of  nations,  correcting  and  lead- 
ing them  into  the  ways  that  make  for  right  and  prog- 
ress. The  Bible  in  showing  us  God's  activity  and  in- 
fluence behind  human  events  will  show  us  that  though 
unknown  to  us  God  is  constantly  restraining  the  natural 
tendencies  of  men  and  nations  and  infusing  higher, 
purer  elements  into  the  corrupt  stream  of  human 
activity. 

A  little  examination,  however,  will  show  that  this 
opinion  is  not  quite  correct.  While  the  Bible  assumes 
that  God  does  have  perfect  power  over  all  the  nations 
and  all  their  activities,  and  while  we  know  that  in  His 
great  world  plan  which  we  call  Nature  He  is  providing 
the  most  efficient  apparatus  for  the  restraining  of  evil 
and  steady  advance  of  progress,  yet  the  history  in  the 
Bible  does  not  for  the  most  part  represent  Him  as  ever 
interfering  by  any  supernatural  or  special  control  for 
that  purpose.  For  a  special  reason  which  we  have 
considered  already  He  does  do  many  acts  of  helpful- 
ness and  guidance  to  one  nation,  Israel,  but  that  was 
not  done  primarily  for  the  improvement  of  the  world 
for  improvement's  sake  but  was  wholly  an  exercise  of 
friendly  fellowship  by  God  because  it  was  His  plan  to 
engage  in  such  fellowship  for  an  independent  reason. 


246  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

As  regards  all  the  other  nations  of  the  world  it  repre- 
sents Him  as  leaving  them  entirely  to  follow  their  own 
inclinations  and  desires  unhindered, — subject  of  course 
to  the  judgments  and  retributions  which  natural  law 
visits  on  all  wrong-doing. 

Even  in  the  case  of  this  one  nation,  Israel,  it  is  not 
an  effective,  coercing  control  but  chiefly  counsel,  en- 
couragements, warnings  and  moral  suasion.  It  is  the 
care  of  a  wise  friend  rather  than  the  manipulation  of 
the  creator  God.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  nation  did 
develop  in  most  respects  according  to  its  own  natural 
tendencies  and  was  not  noticeably  different  from  the 
other  nations  of  the  time  and  region,  as  we  know  from 
other  contemporary  history,  and  also  from  a  careful 
reading  of  the  Bible  history  itself. 

The  Bible  teaching  as  to  the  nations  in  general  seems 
to  be  that  He  leaves  them  to  develop  freely  according 
to  their  natural  tendencies.  He  leaves  the  evolution 
process  untrammelled  to  work  out  the  destiny  of  nations 
as  well  as  individuals.  That  evolution  system  is  His 
work,  and  it  is  admirably  efficient  in  securing  the  good 
results  He  wishes.  Having  established  at  creation  such 
a  great  efficient  system  He  does  not  interfere  with  it  to 
do  by  other  means  the  work  it  was  designed  to  do. 

Such  is  the  picture  the  Bible  gives  us  of  God  in  His 
attitude  towards  all  the  nations  of  the  world.  Nations 
as  well  as  individuals  are  free  to  follow  the  path  of 
their  own  desires,  though  God's  natural  laws  are  just 
as  free  and  are  certain  to  visit  on  them  the  results  of 
their  acts.  Nature  and  evolution,  since  they  are  God's 
work,  do  have  very  efficient  facilities  for  lessening  evil 


NATIONAL  HISTOEY  247 

and  bettering  national  conditions,  but  this  does  not 
come  by  arbitrary  outside  control  and  special  super- 
natural interference  from  God.  The  Bible  gives  us  no 
slothful  assurance  that  some  divinity  will  shape  up  the 
ends  which  we  rough  hew,  either  as  nations  or  as 
individuals. 

Lessons  from  God's  Dealings  with  Israel 

But  this  is  not  the  message  the  Bible  was  given  to 
convey  to  us.  It  is  a  true  and  valid  negative  inference, 
but  the  real  lesson  which  the  national  history  contained 
in  the  Bible  was  intended  to  convey  to  us  is  something 
positive,  and  it  is  all  bound  up  in  the  history  of  God's 
dealings  with  this  one  nation,  Israel,  as  indeed  that 
constitutes  the  real  body  of  the  history,  and  the  refer- 
ences to  other  nations  are  merely  auxiliary  and  inci- 
dental. 

The  lesson  we  are  expected  to  learn  from  God's 
treatment  of  the  nation  of  Israel  is  not  a  political 
lesson,  it  is  not  a  lesson  in  government  nor  even  in 
national  morality.  It  is  not  primarily  a  lesson  to 
nations  at  all  in  their  national  capacity.  It  is  a  re- 
ligious lesson,  as  all  the  other  lessons  of  the  Book  are, 
and  it  is  a  lesson  directed  to  us  as  individuals,  just 
as  all  the  other  lessons  of  religion  are.  For  religion, 
as  we  now  know,  is  not  a  matter  of  masses  and  of 
organization,  but  primarily  a  private  matter  between 
the  soul  of  each  individual  and  God. 

The  reason  why  the  action  is  with  a  nation  rather  than 
with  an  individual  is  in  order  to  magnify  it  and  write  it 
large  so  it  will  be  conspicuous  and  impressive.    But 


248  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

the  intention  is  to  influence  private  individual  hearts 
by  the  picture  of  God  thus  portrayed.  And  we  may 
note  also  that  that  is  the  way  it  has  always  been  used 
by  the  Church.  The  experiences  of  "  God's  chosen 
people"  and  God's  attitude  towards  them  have  con- 
stantly been  used  by  our  fathers  as  in  some  form  or 
other  typical  of  private  Christian  life  now. 

What  then  is  the  history  portrayed  ?  Briefly  stated 
the  Bible  represents  that  God  chose  the  nation  of  Israel 
to  give  to  them  special  treatment  and  favour.  He 
rescued  them  from  slavery,  built  them  up  into  a  nation, 
gave  them  laws,  and  gave  them  His  own  care  as  over- 
lord and  ruler.  He  assisted  them  to  conquer  a  land  to 
dwell  in,  and  enabled  them  to  maintain  their  integrity 
there  as  a  nation  for  many  hundred  years. 

During  all  this  time  He  continued  in  intimate  social 
contact  with  them,  giving  them  advice  and  warning, 
occasionally  allowing  them  to  fall  natural  victims  to 
the  aggressiveness  of  powerful  neighbours  when  they 
broke  the  bond  of  fellowship  by  apostasy,  but  deliver- 
ing them  by  special  means  when  they  came  back  again 
into  the  fellowship  of  loyalty  and  trust.  This  very 
briefly  is  the  essence  of  the  history.  What  is  its  mean- 
ing and  its  value  practically  to  us  ? 

In  the  first  place,  the  primary  teaching  of  it  all  is 
not  some  great  political  lesson  for  the  nations  and 
their  rulers,  but  a  personal,  private  and  purely  religious 
teaching  to  us  as  individuals.  The  meaning  of  it  all  is 
to  so  exhibit  God  in  an  attitude  of  intimate  personal 
kindness  as  to  thereby  invite  and  draw  us  and  all  men 
into  a  relation  of  trust,  loyalty  and  confiding  fellowship 


NATIONAL  HISTOEY  249 

with  Him.  That  is  the  lesson  which  it  is  all  designed 
to  convey  to  us. 

The  essence  of  the  whole  movement  is  not  moral 
government  but  partiality  and  personal  help.  It  is 
not  a  lesson  in  government,  not  even  in  ethical  training, 
but  personal  friendship.  According  to  the  Bible  repre- 
sentation God  chose  this  nation  for  this  special  treat- 
ment, not  for  any  special  moral  worthiness  in  them 
either  present  or  prospective.  It  was  entirely  a  matter 
of  personal  friendship  between  Him  and  their  great 
ancestor  Abraham  that  led  to  His  promising  such 
special  treatment  in  the  first  place.  All  through  the 
history  He  carried  out  that  promise  distinctly  in  the 
character  of  a  friend  showing  favouritism  and  not  as 
the  impartial  moral  ruler  of  the  world  treating  all 
nations  alike. 

The  conditions  which  determined  the  continuance  of 
that  special  helpful  relation  towards  them  were  not 
primarily  ethical  but  personal.  It  was  a  personal 
loyalty  towards  God  as  a  person  which  was  the  one 
condition  continually  insisted  upon.  It  was  always 
breaking  that  bond  of  fellowship  by  apostasy  that  was 
the  cause  of  the  withdrawal  of  God's  protection  with 
the  consequent  disasters  that  came  upon  them. 

Peculiar  Attitude  Towards  Idolatry 
It  is  a  significant  fact  that  the  one  fault  most  often 
and  most  heavily  charged  against  them  was  precisely 
this  fault  of  breaking  the  bond  of  fellowship  by  apos- 
tasy in  following  other  gods.  Again  and  again  there 
are  accounts  of  their  being  allowed  to  fall  under  op* 


250  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

pression  on  account  of  their  sins,  but  the  sin  specified  is 
not  ethical  wrong,  cruelty  and  crime  but  worshipping 
idols  and  thus  offending  against  the  bond  of  loyalty 
that  should  unite  them  to  God. 

There  was  plenty  of  crime  and  evil  in  the  land,  and 
in  the  prophets  we  do  find  frequent  charges  and  warn- 
ings on  account  of  it.  But  that  is  a  different  matter. 
The  prophecies,  as  we  have  seen,  have  the  nature  of 
conversations  by  God  with  them  in  which  He  would 
speak  to  them  of  anything  that  was  profitable  to  them, 
including  their  relations  to  Him  as  moral  governor  of 
the  world.  But  in  the  movement  of  the  history,  in  as 
far  as  it  gives  the  account  of  God's  special  dealings  to 
show  His  personal  attitude  towards  men,  whenever  a 
punishment  is  recorded  as  coming  upon  them  it  is 
always  for  a  breach  of  this  social  fellowship  bond, 
never  for  ethical  wickedness.  And  the  reason  was  be- 
cause that  was  the  one  essential  object  of  all  this  move- 
ment. Their  moral  conduct  was  a  matter  for  God  in 
His  character  as  moral  governor,  that  is  in  the  evolu- 
tion process,  and  the  whole  matter  is  in  the  same  cate- 
gory as  creation  and  natural  law.  But  here  in  His 
attitude  of  friend,  which  is  the  whole  theme  of  the 
Bible  history,  the  one  thing  which  was  an  offense  to  be 
resented  was  disloyalty  to  that  friendship,  and  that  is 
the  one  thing  for  which  punishment  is  portrayed  as 
coming  in  the  historical  movement. 

On  the  other  hand  it  is  a  very  curious  and  remark- 
able fact,  and  one  that  has  seemed  hard  to  account  for, 
that  while  idolatry  among  the  people  of  Israel  was  so 
constantly  denounced  and  severely  punished  yet  the 


NATIONAL  HISTOEY  251 

other  nations  which  practiced  it  exclusively  were 
neither  denounced  nor  punished  on  account  of  it. 
There  are  occasional  representations  in  the  prophets  of 
punishments  denounced  against  these  other  nations,  but 
it  is  either  for  moral  sins  and  crime  or  else,  more  often, 
for  the  mere  fact  of  hostility  and  unkindness  to  Israel. 

While  the  worshipping  of  idols  in  these  other  nations 
is  sometimes  held  up  to  ridicule  as  a  lesson  (cf.  Isa. 
44 : 9-11),  it  is  never  made  the  subject  of  severe 
denunciations  as  it  so  constantly  is  in  Israel.  Indeed 
the  earlier  literature  seems  in  some  cases  almost  to 
treat  that  worship  of  other  gods  as  quite  normal  and 
legitimate  in  other  nations  (cf.  Judg.  11 :  24).  Some 
have  even  claimed  that  the  early  Bible  teaching  is  not 
really  monotheistic  but  represents  Jehovah  merely  as 
the  national  divinity  of  the  Israelites,  recognizing  the 
existence  of  the  other  gods  of  the  other  nations. 

But  all  this  will  become  quite  reasonable  when  we 
fully  recognize  what  was  the  object  of  these  denuncia- 
tions and  of  all  the  Bible  discipline.  It  was  not 
primarily  to  teach  impressively  to  the  world  the  unity 
of  God  and  the  badness  of  idolatry.  It  was  not 
primarily  to  teach  anything  to  the  world.  It  was  all 
an  immediate  practical  matter  with  a  distinct  concrete 
purpose,  namely,  to  win  this  one  specific  people  into  a 
relation  of  loyal  friendship  and  personal  attachment  to 
God. 

ISTot  teaching  truths  but  cementing  a  concrete  bond 
of  fellowship  between  them  and  Him  was  the  thing 
desired,  and  idolatry  was  precisely  the  formal  breaking 
of  that  bond  on  their  part.     That  is  why  idolatry  in 


252  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

them  was  so  severely  treated.  The  one  offense  that 
friendship  cannot  condone  is  to  repudiate  the  bond  of 
friendship  itself.  That  is  just  what  idolatry  among 
the  people  of  Israel  did. 

Among  other  nations  it  had  no  such  implication.  In 
the  other  nations  their  idolatry  was  simply  looking  up 
with  what  little  darkened  knowledge  they  had,  and 
trying  to  offer  some  homage  to  some  superior  being 
that  they  felt  was  over  them.  God  Himself  was  in 
fact  the  one  and  only  superior  being  that  was  over 
them,  and  He  need  not  necessarily  resent  the  ignorance 
and  mistakes  of  their  honest  but  misguided  efforts 
(cf.  Acts  17 :  29,  30).  But  idolatry  in  Israel  was  quite 
a  different  thing  just  because  there  was  clear  knowl- 
edge and  because  there  was  that  special  personal  bond 
of  fellowship  between  them  and  Jehovah,  a  bond  which 
all  God's  dealings  with  them  were  given  for  the  pur- 
pose of  strengthening,  and  which  idolatry  served  to 
entirely  break  and  repudiate. 

Israel's  Friend  Rather  Than  the  Moral 
kuler  of  the  world 
In  this  history  we  must  keep  clearly  in  mind  the  dis- 
tinction between  God  as  moral  ruler  of  the  world  and 
God  as  over-lord  and  "  Shepherd  of  Israel."  The  two 
relations  are  quite  distinct  and  essentially  different. 
As  moral  ruler  of  the  world  God  must  be  perfectly 
impartial,  treating  all  nations  with  equal  favour.  But 
here  He  is  represented  as  extremely  partial,  as  always 
treating  the  Israelites  with  special  favour  and  giving 
them  advantages  and  benefits  that  He  did  not  give  to 


NATIONAL  HISTOEY  253 

any  other  nation,  even  giving  them  at  the  expense  of 
the  other  nations.  He  is  represented  as  the  special 
patron  of  Israel,  championing  their  interests  when  they 
conflicted  with  the  interests  of  other  nations  even 
though  the  moral  rights  of  both  were  equal.  He  fully 
identified  Himself  with  them  as  against  all  other 
nations.  All  He  required  in  return  was  what  friend- 
ship always  demands,  namely,  that  they  should  re- 
ciprocate and  maintain  a  similar  loyalty  to  Him. 

As  pointed  out  elsewhere,  there  was  no  moral  reason 
why  the  Egyptians  should  not  have  continued  to  hold 
possession  of  their  serfs,  just  as  any  other  nation,  and 
the  Israelites  themselves  later,  were  allowed  to  do.  It 
was  merely  that  God  said,  "  They  are  my  people  and  I 
will  deliver  them."  It  was  quite  in  accordance  with 
the  ethics  and  international  law  of  the  era  for  a  nation 
to  migrate,  seize  a  land  to  dwell  in  and  drive  out  the 
former  inhabitants,  provided  only  they  were  able. 
God,  because  He  wished  to  favour  this  people  of  Israel 
as  His  own  people,  made  them  able  and  helped  them  to 
conquer  the  land.  In  the  ordinary  history  of  national 
life  it  would  have  been  quite  impossible  that  they  in 
that  most  critical  location,  the  continual  battle-ground 
between  Egypt  and  Assyria,  should  have  long  continued 
without  being  blotted  out  as  a  nation  or  merged  with 
some  other  peoples  in  new  and  still  new  national  units. 
But  God,  because  He  had  identified  Himself  with  them 
and  chose  to  do  so,  kept  them  intact  a  separate  and 
unmixed  nation  for  a  thousand  years.  God  plainly  did 
not  act  in  any  of  these  instances  as  moral  ruler  of  the 
world  at  all,  but  as  the  friendly  champion  of  this  one 


254  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL 

small  nation,  identifying  Himself  with  all  their  inter- 
ests, even  in  antagonism  to  the  interests  of  other  equally 
worthy  nations. 

Not  that  He  at  all  abrogated  His  office  of  moral 
governor,  or  that  He  minimized  the  value  of  moral 
laws  and  virtue.  On  the  contrary  He  exalted  them, 
and  in  His  capacity  as  over-lord  and  counsellor  did  very 
much  to  establish  respect  for  law  and  lead  the  people 
up  to  better  lives.  But  the  national  movements  and 
the  favours  bestowed  were  not  based  on  these  consider- 
ations but  on  the  one  fact  that  God  had  identified 
Himself  with  the  interests  of  this  nation  and  meant  to 
see  that  they  were  safe  and  successful  as  long  as  they 
reciprocated  the  friendship. 

The  lesson  to  us  of  the  national  history  then  is  not  a 
lesson  directed  primarily  to  our  national  life,  either  to 
its  politics  or  ethics,  or  even  to  its  relations  to  God.  It 
is  rather  a  private  lesson  to  us  personally  as  individuals. 
Its  lesson  is  precisely  the  same  as  the  lesson  of  God's 
dealings  with  individuals,  only  magnified  to  make  it 
more  conspicuous.  It  is  just  the  same  as  the  one  lesson 
of  all  the  Bible,  and  entirely  a  religious  lesson.  It  is 
simply  a  great  picture  of  God  identifying  Himself  with 
specific  men  in  sympathetic  friendship  and  fellowship. 
It  is  simply  a  great  movement  to  inspire  in  us  a  recip- 
rocal feeling  of  trust,  friendship  and  fellowship  with 
God. 


YIII 
GOD  AND  INDIVIDUALS 

WHEN  we  pass  to  the  history  as  it  deals  with 
individuals  we  are  coming  to  something 
that  seems  to  touch  us  more  closely.  "We 
can  see  more  easily  how  it  has  bearing  on  our  own  lives. 
We  can  see  there  more  evidently  what  attitude  God 
may  be  expected  to  have  towards  us  as  individuals,  and 
how  we  may  feel  towards  Him. 

As  we  take  up  this  topic  perhaps  our  first  thought 
would  be  that  the  message  is  a  message,  if  not  of  fear, 
at  least  of  sternness  and  awe.  The  Old  Testament 
represents  God  as  a  holy  being  with  an  intense  hatred 
of  sin.  The  movement  is  full  of  punishments  of  sin. 
The  object  is  to  arouse  in  us  an  appropriate  fear  of 
God's  judgments  and  a  zeal  to  live  righteously  before 
Him.  It  is  a  common  estimate  that  the  New  Testa- 
ment teaches  God's  love  but  the  Old  Testament  was 
intended  to  teach  His  justice,  righteousness  and  pun- 
ishment of  sin. 

If  by  sin  we  mean  crime  and  wrong  between  man 
and  man  that  estimate  is  not  entirely  correct.  How 
many  instances  are  there  in  the  Old  Testament  where 
a  man  received  supernatural  punishment  from  God  on 
account  of  moral  sins?  Punishments  there  were  in- 
deed, but  as  in  the  case  of  the  nation,  the  cause  of  the 
punishment   was  almost  always  something  that  im- 

255 


256  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

pinged  upon  the  personal  relation  of  loyalty  towards 
God.  In  other  words  it  was  offense  against  the  bond 
of  friendship  itself  that  caused  the  punishments.  More- 
over in  the  great  majority  of  cases  there  was  no  super- 
natural infliction  of  punishment  at  all,  but  merely 
when  the  person  broke  the  bond  of  friendship  God 
withdrew  the  protection  of  that  friendship  and  allowed 
him  to  fall  under  some  natural  evil  impending  over 
him. 

There  are  some  cases  that  at  first  seem  to  be  an  ex- 
ception to  this.  Eli's  sons  were  morally  wicked,  and 
on  that  account  God  predicted  their  violent  death 
(1  Sam.  2 :  27-36).  But  even  in  doing  so  He  was  at 
pains  to  declare  that  it  was  not  merely  the  immorality 
as  such  that  brought  the  punishment,  but  because  as 
priests  they  brought  contempt  upon  the  service  of  God 
and  thus  offended  against  the  personal  relation  of  God 
to  the  people. 

Again  in  the  case  of  Ahab,  after  he  had  murdered 
JSTaboth  and  seized  his  vineyard  the  prophet  Elijah 
comes  to  him  and  denounces  his  violent  death  and  the 
destruction  of  his  house  (1  Kings  21 :  17-29).  But 
from  the  words  of  the  denunciation,  as  well  as  from 
the  fact  that  substantially  the  same  denunciation  had 
been  made  before,  it  is  evident  that  the  murder  was 
rather  the  occasion  than  the  real  cause  of  the  denuncia- 
tion. And  when  he  acknowledged  God  and  repented 
God  lightened  the  punishment.  Doubtless  his  repent- 
ance was  chiefly  terror  at  the  threatened  punishment. 
Yet  it  was  a  real  acknowledgment  of  God  and  was  so 
accepted. 


GOD  AND  INDIVIDUALS  257 

But  more  than  that,  in  both  cases  the  punishment 
was  not  a  supernatural  punishment  of  God  but  was 
merely  a  natural  calamity  that  came  upon  them.  All 
that  it  is  represented  that  God  did  supernaturally  was 
to  warn  them  of  it  by  a  prophet  and  point  out  that  it 
was  really  a  punishment  for  their  sins. 

God  does  denounce  immorality  and  crime  all  through 
the  Bible,  and  warn  men  of  the  punishment  that  will 
come  on  them  for  it.  But  that  is  quite  a  different 
thing  from  punishing  a  man  supernaturally.  Such 
warning  is  really  a  kindness.  Punishment  of  moral 
wrong  is  a  part  of  natural  law.  It  is  merely  a  fact, 
and  it  is  kindness  to  warn  us  of  a  fact.  It  is  merely  a 
fact  that  gravitation  draws,  fire  burns  and  poison  kills. 
That  penalty  follows  the  infraction  of  law  either  phys- 
ical, psychical  or  moral  is  merely  a  fact.  It  is  an 
arrangement  that  the  Creator  established  from  the 
beginning  as  part  of  the  great  evolution  system.  It  is 
kindness  in  God  to  remind  us  of  that  fact,  and  even  to 
use  most  urgent  means  to  impress  it  upon  us,  as  He 
does  so  often  in  the  Bible. 

In  His  great  enterprise  of  fellowship  God  in  talking 
to  men  must  talk  about  something  important.  He 
might  have  talked  to  us  about  the  composition  of  the 
stars,  or  taught  us  how  to  manufacture  radium  and 
construct  aeroplanes.  But  in  doing  so  He  would  have 
deprived  us  of  the  great  pleasure  and  discipline  of  dis- 
covering those  things  ourselves.  Instead  His  talk  is 
chiefly  on  the  plane  of  moral  principles  which  we  al- 
ready know,  though  He  adds  the  whole  weight  of  His 
personality  and  of  the  bond  of  friendship  between  us 


258  THE  SUPEKNATURAL 

to  try  to  get  us  to  feel  their  truth  and  benefit  by  it, — 
certainly  a  most  appropriate  form  of  conversation  be- 
tween a  kind  creator  and  His  developing  and  independ- 
ent-minded children. 

Nature  of  the  Supernatural  Punishments 
In  almost  all  the  cases  where  God  inflicted  what 
might  be  called  a  supernatural  punishment  the  offense 
was  something  personal  to  Himself,  such  as  breaking 
some  administrative  or  ceremonial  rule.  Nadab  and 
Abihu  were  killed  for  breaking  the  ceremonial  rules 
(Lev.  10  : 1-2).  Korah  and  his  companions  were  killed 
for  defying  the  administrative  rules  (Num.  16  :  25-35). 
We  may  include  the  man  killed  for  violating  the  newly 
promulgated  Sabbath  rule  (Num.  15  :  32-36),  for  the 
punishment  was  specifically  ordered  by  God.  Uzzah 
was  killed  for  breaking  a  ceremonial  rule  (1  Chron.  13 : 
9, 10).  Jeroboam's  hand  wras  withered  for  a  presumptu- 
ous wrong  act  of  worship  (1  Kings  13  : 1-6).  The  fifty 
soldiers  were  killed  for  despising  God's  representative 
(2  Kings  1 : 9-12).  Uzziah  was  stricken  with  leprosy 
for  infringing  the  ceremonial  regulations  (2  Chron.  26 : 
16-19).  Even  the  leprosy  inflicted  upon  Gehazi 
(2  Kings  5 :  27)  was  evidently  not  merely  because  he 
told  a  lie  but  because  he  thereby  tended  to  tarnish  the 
sacred  office  of  his  master  as  prophet  of  God. 

Unquestionably  there  must  have  been  frequent  cases 
of  exaggerated  crimes,  of  violence,  cruelty  and  injustice 
all  through  the  history  that  might  have  been  held  up 
as  examples  by  supernatural  punishment,  if  God  had 
wished  to  do  so.    The  fact  that  He  does  not  do  so,  and 


GOD  AND  INDIVIDUALS  259 

that  there  is  all  this  long  list  of  cases  where  He  inflicted 
supernatural  calamity  for  offenses  personal  to  Himself 
must  have  some  significance. 

If  God's  object  in  all  the  movement  recorded  in  the 
Bible  was  by  giving  friendship  to  men  to  draw  them 
into  a  relation  of  friendship  to  Himself,  then  this  mean- 
ing is  quite  apparent.  It  is  quite  natural  for  friendship 
to  resent  specially  any  affront  to  the  person  or  anything 
that  despises  and  breaks  the  bond  of  friendship.  It 
may  patiently  tolerate  all  other  kinds  of  evil,  but  that 
is  fatal. 

We  may  notice  also  that  when  He  does  inflict  these 
supernatural  calamities  for  breach  of  fellowship  it  is 
always  done  in  a  way  and  in  a  setting  such  as  to  make 
it  as  conspicuous  as  possible,  quite  in  contrast  with  the 
miracles  of  help  and  mercy,  which  are  often  most  quiet 
and  inconspicuous.  The  meal  was  multiplied  and  the 
son  raised  in  the  obscure  home  of  a  widow  in  Sarepta 
(1  Kings  17 :  14-25).  The  oil  was  multiplied  for  a 
prophet's  widow  (2  Kings  4  : 1-7).  There  was  a  resur- 
rection at  the  prophet's  grave  (2  Kings  13  :  21).  The 
chariots  of  fire  were  seen  only  by  Elisha  (2  Kings  2 :  11). 
Help  was  given  under  the  juniper  tree  in  the  desert 
(1  Kings  19  :  5-8).  These  and  other  acts  of  like  kind 
were  all  done  in  private,  and  intended  to  impress  God's 
sympathy  with  the  humblest  and  accessibility  to  the 
private  individual. 

But  Uzzah  is  struck  down  in  the  great  royal  pro- 
cession (1  Chron.  13  :  9-10).  Jeroboam's  hand  is  with- 
ered at  a  great  national  ceremony  (1  Kings  13  : 1-6). 
King  Uzziah  is  stricken  with  leprosy  in  the  temple  at 


260  THE  SUPEKNATTJKAL 

a  great  religious  ceremony  (2  Chron.  26  :  16-19).  Both 
Korah  and  his  companions  and  the  priests  Nadab  and 
Abihu  were  smitten  under  circumstances  of  the  greatest 
possible  publicity  (Lev.  10  and  Num.  16).  It  all  looks 
as  though  God  were  trying  to  accomplish  the  greatest 
amount  of  salutary  warning  with  the  smallest  possible 
expense  of  suffering. 

But  not  all  of  God's  special  dealings  with  individuals, 
by  any  means,  were  of  this  severe  character.  By  far 
the  greater  number  of  incidents  represent  Him  in  an 
attitude  of  kindness  and  favour.  Even  in  cases  where 
punishment  seemed  urgently  called  for  He  is  more  often 
portrayed  as  patient  and  lenient  and  seeking  to  delay 
or  remit  the  punishments  entirely.  Moreover  if  God 
regarded  the  personal  bond  of  covenanted  fellowship 
between  us  and  Himself  as  so  precious  that  the  only 
punishments  He  did  personally  inflict  either  on  indi- 
viduals or  on  the  nation  were  for  acts  that  despised  or 
broke  that  bond,  that  should  be  to  us  a  ground  rather 
of  hope  than  of  fear,  for  jealousy  is  considered  to  be  a 
sign  of  especial  love. 

Men  of  Low  Social  Level 
When  we  turn  then  to  the  other  side  to  study  the 
acts  of  favour  and  kindness  we  find  them  bestowed 
upon  all  classes  and  grades  of  people. 

One  of  the  significant  features  of  the  Old  Testament 
is  the  way  it  represents  God  in  familiar  comradeship 
with  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  and  as  using  them, 
even  some  of  the  most  unlikely  of  them,  in  some  of  His 
most  important  enterprises.    What  we  might  call  "  The 


GOD  AND  INDIVIDUALS  261 

fellowship  of  service  "  is  the  highest  kind  of  honour 
that  He  could  offer  to  an  active,  earnest  man,  and  it  is 
remarkable  on  what  low  classes  of  people  He  bestowed 
that  great  honour. 

This  is  something  that  it  is  very  hard  to  justify  on 
the  theory  that  God  in  the  Bible  is  represented  as 
moral  ruler,  rewarding  men  for  their  virtue  or  bringing 
into  prominence  those  that  are  to  be  models  for  the 
world.  But  it  is  all  clear  and  plain  when  we  recognize 
that  the  Bible  was  not  given  to  be  a  handbook  of 
ethics  but  to  picture  God  forth  as  the  friend  of  men  of 
all  classes.  In  the  Old  Testament  as  well  as  in  the 
New,  He  came  "  not  to  call  the  righteous  but  sinners  " 
and  to  be  the  friend  of  those  that  need  Him  most. 

Take  the  character  of  Jephtha  (Judg.  11 : 1-12  :  7), 
one  of  the  judges  that  God  used  for  a  great  work.  He 
was  an  illegitimate  son,  and  stung  by  the  obloquy  it 
brought  upon  him  he  went  away  off  to  the  frontier  re- 
gions and  became  a  bandit,  much  such  a  character  as 
"  Jesse  James "  or  "  Francisco  Villa,"  perhaps.  He 
was  rough  and  harsh  by  nature,  and  even  after  he  had 
risen  to  favour  he  killed  his  only  daughter  on  account 
of  a  foolish,  rash  vow  that  he  had  thoughtlessly  made. 

Is  that  the  kind  of  man  the  Bible  would  have  us  be- 
lieve God  approves  ?  Are  we  to  take  that  as  a  char- 
acter we  are  encouraged  to  imitate  ?  It  is  hard  to  see 
how  we  can  avoid  some  such  implication  if  the  Bible  is 
intended  chiefly  as  an  ethical  guide  and  to  furnish  us 
examples  for  imitation.  There  is  not  one  word  given 
in  the  record  to  express  disapproval  of  any  feature  of 
his  character  or  acts.    He  is  used  by  God  in  a  most 


262  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

important  service,  and  is  raised  thereby  to  a  position  of 
the  highest  honour  in  the  state. 

Or  take  for  another  example  Samson  (Judg.  13-16),  a 
great,  hulking  giant,  sensual  and  dull  of  wit,  whose 
forte  was  to  jest  and  feast  and  slaughter  men.  And 
yet  he  stands  in  the  lime-light  of  God's  service,  as 
prominent  as  any  prophet  or  saint,  his  birth  announced 
by  an  angel  and  his  name  engraved  among  the  great 
deliverers  of  Israel. 

Are  we  to  suppose  that  this  teaches  God's  special  ap- 
proval of  that  kind  of  character  in  men  ?  Is  he  to  be 
taken  as  a  model,  and  are  we  to  think  that  by  acting  as 
he  did  we  shall  be  specially  pleasing  to  God  ?  What 
useful  ethical  or  theological  lesson  can  we  learn  from 
such  a  character  and  such  a  history  ? 

It  is  hard  to  see  how  we  can  justify,  not  to  say  re- 
ceive profit  from,  the  Bible  accounts  of  such  men  in 
God's  service  on  the  view  that  the  Bible  is  primarily 
intended  to  teach  us  ethics  and  depict  God  as  the  moral 
ruler  of  the  world,  or  indeed  on  any  other  view  than 
the  one  we  have  assumed  here,  that  it  is  intended 
chiefly  to  teach  us  that  God  receives  and  fraternizes 
with  any  one  of  any  character  that  is  willing  to  frat- 
ernize with  Him.  It  is  the  same  attitude  as  that  nota- 
ble statement  of  the  New  Testament :  "  This  man  re- 
ceiveth  sinners  and  eateth  with  them "  (Luke  15  :  2). 
He  is  meeting  men  as  friend  and  not  at  all  as  judge  or 
moral  ruler.  Very  imperfect  men  need  friends  just  as 
much  as  perfect  ones  do, — if  there  be  any  such.  And 
the  contact  of  a  good  and  noble  friend  will  be  as  bene- 
ficial to  them  as  it  would  be  to  the  better  man. 


GOD  AND  INDIVIDUALS  263 

It  is  just  God's  relation  to  such  characters  as  these 
that  teaches  one  of  the  most  important  lessons  for  us. 
It  is  a  lesson  the  Church  has  largely  forgotten,  or  has 
failed  yet  to  learn.  Perhaps  it  is  our  recent  neglect  of 
the  Old  Testament  as  a  religious  guide  that  is  the  cause 
why  this  lesson  has  not  been  taken  to  heart  in  this 
great  sociological  age. 

For  there  are  large  numbers  of  men  of  corresponding 
character  among  us  to-day.  They  swear.  They  get 
drunk.  They  lead  coarse,  uncouth  lives,— chiefly  per- 
haps because  they  were  born  and  brought  up  in  that 
kind  of  an  environment.  Christians  consider  them  out- 
side the  pale  of  all  church  association.  If  Jesus  were 
to  come  among  us  again,  and  we  were  to  see  Him 
spending  days  and  nights  in  the  company  of  such  men 
and  sending  them  upon  important  missions,  we  would  be 
almost  as  much  astonished  and  scandalized  as  the  Jewish 
Pharisees  were.  These  Old  Testament  stories  show  us 
that  such  men  may  be  just  as  near  to  the  compassion 
and  the  friendship  of  God  as  some  of  us  whose  charac- 
ters are  of  a  slightly  lighter  shade  of  gray. 

With  all  their  coarseness  and  low  ethical  standards 
they  were  at  least  responsive  to  God's  advances  and 
loyal.  God  can  do  something  with  that  kind  of  a  man. 
The  more  he  needs  it  the  more  ready  God  is  to  give 
him  friendship  and  use  him  in  something  good.  These 
Old  Testament  stories  do  not  teach  us  that  such  men 
are  to  be  our  ethical  models,  but  they  do  teach  us  that 
they  are  our  brothers,  and  that  God  does  not  shun  them 
as  we  do. 

Salvation  indeed  will  not  mean  as  much  to  a  man  of 


264  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL 

that  low  grade  as  it  will  to  a  man  of  a  higher,  finer 
nature.  He  will  only  get  what  his  low,  impoverished 
nature  is  able  to  receive  from  the  fellowship  of  God, 
and  a  man  of  higher,  finer  nature  will  get  immeasura- 
bly more  out  of  that  same  fellowship.  But  he  can  have 
it  just  as  well  as  the  more  highly  developed  man  can, 
for  God  is  just  as  willing  to  give  it  to  him,  or  to  any 
one  who  will  receive  it  and  respond  to  it. 

Haesh  and  Cruel  Men 

Another  class  of  men  whose  conduct  conflicts  with 
our  modern  standards  somewhat  is  such  men  as  Joshua, 
Jehu,  Saul  and  the  like.  They  were  warriors,  ruthless 
and  cruel  often.  As  their  actions  do  not  square  with 
the  Christian  precept  to  "Love  your  enemies"  and 
"  Do  good  to  all  men,"  it  is  questioned  how  those  ac- 
tions could  have  been  actions  directed  and  approved  by 
God. 

As  for  Joshua  we  must  remember  that  he  was  part 
of  a  great  natural  movement  which  God  was  using  to 
work  a  favour  to  this  nation  Israel.  At  that  time  it  was 
as  normal  for  a  tribe  or  nation  that  needed  territory  to 
seize  it  where  they  could  and  drive  out  the  former 
holders,  as  it  was  for  the  Americans  to  take  the  western 
prairies  away  from  the  buffalo  and  deer.  Whether  it 
was  ethically  right  or  not  is  a  question  we  need  not 
raise  at  all,  for  God  does  not  even  now  wait  till  all  the 
plans  and  details  of  their  enterprises  are  perfect  and 
pure  before  He  takes  any  part  in  the  direction  of  men's 
affairs.  He  takes  men  as  they  are, — and  He  takes 
wolves  as  they  are, — and  He  uses  the  normal  acts  of 


GOD  AND  INDIVIDUALS  265 

them  both  to  work  out  wise  purposes  both  in  nature 
and  in  what  we  call  Grace. 

Joshua  being  such  a  man  as  he  was,  and  engaged  in 
an  enterprise  in  which  according  to  the  standards  of 
international  law  of  that  day  it  was  perfectly  normal 
that  he  should  be  engaged,  God  stood  by  him  as  friend 
and  helper,  just  as  He  stood  by  Cromwell,  "Washington, 
Dewey  or  Togo,  in  great  cruel  undertakings  that  yet 
wrought  out  great  good  results  to  men. 

Very  much  the  same  was  true  also  in  the  case  of  Jehu 
(2  Kings  9-10).  Many  of  his  actions  were  cruel  and 
treacherous.  But  they  were  all  quite  normal  and  in 
accord  with  the  accepted  standards  of  his  day.  Again 
it  is  not  relevant  to  ask  whether  they  were  ethically 
right.  He  was  such  a  man  and  did  such  things  as  were 
to  be  expected  of  a  man  in  his  age,  and  being  so,  God, 
when  He  was  so  inclined,  saw  nothing  to  hinder  His 
standing  by  him  as  friend  and  using  him. 

In  both  these  cases,  also  in  the  cases  of  Jephtha  and 
Samson,  we  must  note  that  they  were  loyal  and  faith- 
ful to  God.  Whatever  were  their  other  offenses  they 
did  not  offend  against  the  bond  of  friendship  and  fellow- 
ship. In  all  this  Bible  movement  that  is  the  one  funda- 
mental and  essential  matter.  Not  that  morals  and 
character  are  not  extremely  important,  but  simply  that 
they  are  not  the  primary  theme  and  object  of  the  Bible 
any  more  than  political  economy  is  the  primary  theme 
of  an  algebra  for  instance.  The  one  fundamental  pur- 
pose of  all  the  Bible  movement  is  to  win  men  into  the 
state  of  loyal  friendship  and  fellowship  with  God. 
That  therefore  is  the  one  condition  that  must  deter- 


266  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

mine  God's  attitude  towards  any  man  and  His  use  of 
him. 

And  so  we  see  in  the  case  of  Saul  (1  Sam.  9  :  31)  the 
same  proposition  illustrated  from  the  reverse  side. 
Saul  was  in  many  respects  an  estimable  young  man 
when  God  chose  him.  His  faults  were  not  especially 
on  the  side  of  aggression  and  cruelty.  Indeed  in  one 
case  his  course  was  less  cruel  than  the  punitive  pur- 
pose of  God  called  for  (1  Sam.  15).  But  his  one  fault 
was  precisely  offense  against  the  loyalty  which  the  fel- 
lowship bond  towards  his  over-lord  Jehovah  called  for. 
For  that  offense  he  was  rejected,  and  God  withdrew 
His  friendship  and  alliance  from  him.  He  also  de- 
clared that  David  whom  He  would  put  in  his  place  was 
"  A  man  after  my  heart  who  shall  do  all  my  will " 
(Acts  13  :  22  ;  1  Sam.  13  :  14). 

Thus  from  both  sides  we  have  illustration  of  the  fact 
that  the  motive  of  the  Bible  history  is  not  ethical  but 
personal  and  social.  It  is  the  purpose  of  all  the  move- 
ment to  try  to  get  men  to  reciprocate  the  relation  of 
pledged  friendship  which  God  offers.  Those  that  do 
so  are  the  ones  that  God  uses  and  can  use.  It  is  offense 
against  that  relation  that  is  the  one  cardinal  fault  that 
is  fatal.  That  is  the  one  lesson  that  is  intended  to  be 
impressed  by  these  stories  of  Joshua,  Jehu,  Saul,  Ehud, 
Shamgar,  Jephtha,  Samson  and  others,  whose  char- 
acters and  actions  lack  much  of  measuring  up  to  the 
level  of  the  ethical  standards  of  our  day. 

Along  with  this  is  the  other  lesson  that  no  man  is  so 
rough  and  coarse  as  to  be  beyond  the  pale  of  God's 
sympathy  and  even   of  His  companionship  and  use. 


GOD  AND  INDIVIDUALS  267 

He  gives  that  sympathy  and  companionship  most  gladly 
to  those  that  need  it  most.  The  God  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment no  less  than  the  Christ  of  the  New  is  really 
"  The  Sinner's  Friend." 

God's  Companionship  with  Good  Men 
"We  will  find  this  same  principle  of  Bible  interpreta- 
tion to  be  equally  valid  with  reference  to  God's  rela- 
tions with  other  men  in  the  history  whose  lives  were 
on  a  higher  plane,  and  whose  characters  and  conduct 
were  nearer  to  our  modern  ideals.  There  is  quite  a 
long  list  of  such  men,  of  varying  goodness  and  of  vary- 
ing prominence  in  the  history.  Abraham,  Joseph, 
Moses,  Samuel,  David,  Solomon,  Elijah,  Elisha,  Isaiah, 
Asa,  Jehoshaphat,  Hezekiah,  and  a  large  number  of 
greater  and  lesser  men  both  in  public  and  private  life. 

It  has  been  considered  easier  to  make  the  records  of 
these  men  profitable  on  the  basis  of  ethical  teaching 
and  example.  All  of  them  had  some  admirable  points 
worthy  of  imitation,  and  it  is  easy  to  pass  over  their 
faults  with  the  mere  remark  that  all  men  are  fallible. 
Yet  even  the  lives  of  such  men  as  these  become  much 
more  profitable  to  us  when  viewed  merely  as  the  back- 
ground of  God's  activities  in  friendliness  and  fellow- 
ship. Even  with  such  men  the  vivid  view  of  God's 
friendly  social  attitude  towards  them  is  far  more  use- 
ful to  us  than  any  benefit  we  can  derive  from  the  mere 
goodness  to  which  they  themselves  attained. 

In  saying  this  we  are  not  discovering  something  new 
but  merely  expressing  what  the  Christian  consciousness 
has  always  felt  in  contact  with  these  stories,  but  has 


268  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

perhaps  not  always  clearly  formulated  and  asserted 
Abraham  is  called  "  The  Father  of  the  faithful "  and 
his  faith  has  considerable  value  in  making  up  our  the- 
ological propositions.  But  to  us  personally  in  our  re- 
ligious lives  there  is  far  more  comfort  and  inspiration, 
and  far  more  practical  benefit  that  comes  from  viewing 
the  beautiful  relation  of  familiar,  personal  friendship 
which  is  depicted  as  existing  between  God  and  him. 

The  story  of  Joseph,  the  temptation  he  resisted  and 
the  unjust  suffering  he  patiently  endured  (Gen.  39  ff.), 
may  seem  a  moral  lesson  adapted  to  bring  us  great 
benefit.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  how  much  help  or  in- 
spiration do  we  feel  for  instance  in  reading  "  The  Story 
of  the  Two  Brothers,"  a  singularly  parallel  experience 
related  in  ancient  Egyptian  legends,  only  without  the 
hovering  presence  of  God  which  infuses  all  this  account 
and  gives  it  its  moving  power. 

It  is  God  choosing,  training  and  using  Moses  in  a 
great  work  which  is  the  picture  that  chains  our  im- 
agination and  influences  us.  It  is  God  like  a  genial 
father  calling  the  little  boy  Samuel  to  His  side  and 
talking  to  him  (1  Sam.  3 :  1-14),  and  continuing  the 
same  familiar  friendly  attitude  towards  him  all  through 
his  eventful  life,  which  is  the  picture  that  influences 
us,  rather  than  anything  in  the  incidents  and  character 
of  that  long  life. 

It  is  God  and  David, — God's  delight  in  the  humble, 
manly  development  of  the  young  man,  God  protecting 
and  leading  him,  God  opening  the  way  before  him  and 
giving  him  success  and  power,  likewise  God  chastening 
him  sorely  when  he  fell  into  sin,  and  God  receiving 


GOD  AND  INDIVIDUALS  269 

hira  back  chastened  and  repentant  into  His  favour 
again,  God  his  ally,  companion  and  confidential  friend, 
inspiring  to  noble  thoughts  and  deeds  as  well  as  com- 
forting in  times  of  disaster  and  sorrow, — this  is  the 
picture  that  is  engraved  deep  in  our  imaginations 
rather  than  merely  David  the  boy  hero,  just  king  and 
mighty  conqueror. 

With  the  prophets,  Elijah,  Elisha,  Isaiah  and  the 
rest,  God  bulks  as  the  principal  factor  in  the  incidents 
recorded,  and  the  prophets  are  merely  His  instruments 
and  mouthpieces.  With  the  kings,  such  as  Hezekiah, 
Josiah,  Asa  and  the  others,  the  narrative  for  the  most 
part  only  aims  to  give  their  history  in  its  relation  to 
God,  how  God  prospered  them  when  they  were  faith- 
ful, and  when  they  grew  disloyal  or  slack  in  their 
allegiance  allowed  disaster  to  have  its  unhindered  way 
upon  them.  Much  the  same  is  true  also  of  all  the 
other  minor  characters.  Their  history  is  given  chiefly 
with  reference  to  some  act  of  mercy,  kindness  or  guid- 
ance that  God  gave  to  them,  and  it  is  God's  part  in  the 
case  that  is  always  the  most  important  feature,  together 
with  their  personal  obedience  and  loyalty  to  God. 

The  case  of  Solomon  is  an  interesting  one.  In  the 
beginning  there  was  a  very  beautiful  relation  like  that 
of  father  and  filial  son  between  God  and  the  new  king. 
God  raised  him  to  great  power  and  gave  him  wonder- 
ful wisdom,  and  Solomon  built  the  magnificent  temple 
to  his  God.  But  in  his  later  years  this  loyal  fealty  be- 
came clouded  (2  Kings  11).  Other  deities  were  allowed 
to  have  some  of  the  honour  that  should  have  been  given 
to  God  alone.     As  the  direct  result  of  this,  we  are  told, 


270  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

the  latter  days  of  the  king  were  troubled  and  harassed, 
and  after  his  death  more  than  half  the  kingdom  was 
swept  away  from  his  house  entirely. 

We  may  note  that  the  record  makes  the  sole  cause 
of  these  disasters  to  Solomon's  house  disloyalty  and 
breaking  the  bond  of  fealty  to  Jehovah,  though  from 
the  after  complaints  of  the  people  to  Eehoboam 
(1  Kings  12:4),  there  seems  to  have  been  a  good  deal 
of  oppression  of  the  people  by  him  and  other  sins  that 
might  have  been  made  the  reason  for  the  disaster  if  the 
book  had  been  written  with  an  ethical  purpose.  And 
yet  the  record  cites  only  the  defection  from  Jehovah 
as  the  cause  of  it  all. 

In  the  case  of  the  good  kings  Asa  and  Joash  almost 
the  same  thing  is  recorded.  Disasters  came  in  the  lat- 
ter part  of  their  reigns,  and  it  is  all  attributed  to  their 
defection  from  Jehovah  (2  Chron.  16 :  7-12 ;  24 :  15-25). 
Some  ethical  evils  are  mentioned  in  both  cases,  but 
they  are  treated  as  minor  matters  compared  with  this 
one  fact  of  breaking  the  personal  bond  with  Jehovah. 

Attitude  Towakds  Bad  Men 
We  will  find  that  the  same  principle  holds  good 
when  we  turn  to  the  other  side,  to  the  history  of  indi- 
viduals of  bad  character.  Even  where  calamities  or 
punishments  are  recorded  they  are  never  merely  for 
morally  bad  conduct,  and  never  merely  for  punish- 
ment's sake.  They  are  always  for  some  personal  of- 
fense against  God's  personal  friendly  bond  with  Israel, 
and  wholly  given  as  a  means  for  strengthening  that 
bond. 


GOD  AND  INDIVIDUALS  271 

The  case  of  Pharaoh  may  be  considered  typical. 
The  New  Testament  makes  the  remarkable  statement 
that  God  raised  up  Pharaoh  expressly  for  the  sake  of 
visiting  that  punishment  upon  him  (Eom.  9 :  17).  Of 
course  then  it  could  not  have  been  punishment  for  pun- 
ishment's sake,  and  it  could  not  have  been  moral  sin 
that  God  led  him  into  that  he  might  be  punished.  It 
was  merely  that  God  so  arranged  and  led  that  Pharaoh 
should  come  into  violent  opposition  to  the  personal 
plans  of  favour  He  was  carrying  out  for  His  friends 
Israel,  and  the  woeful  consequences  which  that  must 
inevitably  entail  was  a  valuable  object  lesson  that 
would  stimulate  the  loyalty  of  His  people  Israel  and 
lead  them  to  closer  friendly  trust. 

More  significant  is  the  great  number  of  cases  where 
punishment  was  merited  or  even  threatened  and  after- 
wards lightened  or  remitted.  It  begins  with  Cain,  that 
first  great  criminal,  whom  God  dealt  with  leniently 
and  compassionately  (Gen.  4: 9-15),  or  indeed  with  the 
first  parents  themselves,  whose  threatened  punishment 
was  lightened,  with  the  promise  of  ultimate  complete 
deliverance  (Gen.  2 :  17 ;  3 : 1-19).  And  so  all  on  down 
through  the  history,  the  attitude  of  God  towards  the 
bad  man  is  not  that  of  the  impartial,  inflexible  judge, 
but  on  the  other  hand,  as  far  as  direct  acts  are  con- 
cerned, He  appears  more  often  as  mitigating  some  de- 
served punishment  or  ignoring  offenses  entirely  and 
going  right  on  in  friendly  help  to  the  offending  person. 

Jacob  did  a  very  disgraceful  and  wicked  act  in  de- 
ceiving his  father  to  obtain  a  formal  blessing  (Gen.  27), 
and  although  we  see  that  by  the  nemesis  of  nature  it 


272  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

was  the  cause  of  great  suffering  to  him,  yet  God  in  His 
personal  activity  as  pictured  in  the  narrative  does  not 
take  any  notice  of  it  at  all.  He  allowed  the  blessing 
which  the  deceived  father  had  pronounced  to  stand 
good,  and  confirmed  it  by  the  miraculous  vision  of  the 
ladder  (Gen.  28  :  12-17).  This  would  be  intolerable  in 
a  moral  ruler,  but  in  the  movement  of  the  history  God 
is  not  acting  as  moral  ruler  at  all,  but  entirely  in  the 
attitude  of  friend  and  partisan,  and  it  is  the  fit  office 
of  a  friend  to  continue  his  friendship  and  help  irrespec- 
tive of  the  character  and  acts  of  the  one  befriended. 

He  was  his  friend  because  Jacob  had  desired  that 
friendship,  and  had  been  at  pains  to  get  himself  made 
the  heir  of  a  special  regime  of  friendship  which  God 
from  the  time  of  Abraham  was  bestowing  specially  on 
a  specific  line  of  persons  (Gen.  25  :  31-34).  It  was  to 
emphasize  the  importance  and  absoluteness  of  that 
compact  of  friendship  that  God  for  its  sake  entirely 
overlooked  the  faultiness  of  the  man  who  had  prized  it 
and  sought  to  have  it.  Instead  of  a  blunder  of  the 
narrator  this  little  incident  really  contains  a  miniature 
epitome  of  the  gospel  of  salvation,  namely,  God  be- 
friending the  unworthy  who  trust  in  Him. 

God  is  not  represented  as  making  any  hint  of  pun- 
ishment when  the  brothers  acted  so  cruelly  to  Joseph 
and  deceived  their  father  (Gen.  27:18-35)  or  when 
Simeon  and  Levi  murdered  so  many  innocent  men  at 
Shechem  (Gen.  24  :  25-28).  The  story  of  the  Danites' 
perfidy  is  given  without  any  hint  of  punishment  (Judg. 
18 :  14r-26).  Kehoboam  was  saved  from  part  of  the 
disaster  of  his  senseless  tyranny  for  the  sake  of  the 


GOD  AND  INDIVIDUALS  273 

friendship  to  David  (1  Kings  11 :  32).  Manasseh  was 
very  cruel  as  well  as  apostate,  but  just  as  soon  as  he 
repented  of  his  apostasy  and  looked  to  God  he  was  for- 
given and  reinstated  in  favour  (2  Chron.  33  :  12-13). 

The  Old  Testament  Gospel 
Such  and  of  such  a  nature  is  the  story  of  God's  deal- 
ings with  men  as  recorded  in  the  Old  Testament.  It 
is  not  the  story  of  men  slowly  overcoming  their  faults 
and  rising  to  higher  levels  of  virtue.  That  is  not  what 
is  portrayed  nor  what  is  intended.  No  more  is  it  the 
story  of  a  just  and  omniscient  God  watching  over  the 
conduct  of  men,  punishing  their  sins  and  rewarding 
virtue.  Sins  are  passed  over  in  a  way  that  would  be 
inexplicable  as  the  administration  of  a  just  moral  ruler, 
and  quite  as  often  the  virtuous  and  noble  are  allowed 
to  meet  with  the  severest  trials.  The  intention  must 
be  to  portray  God  in  another  light  entirely. 

The  whole  picture  of  God  in  His  dealings  both  with 
good  men  and  bad  is  that  of  a  great  wise  friend  using 
every  means  to  build  up  a  relation  of  friendship.  With 
the  bad  He  is  lenient,  forgiving  if  there  is  any  plausible 
pretext,  and  ever  seeking  by  warning  and  kindness  to 
win  them  to  better  things.  With  the  good  He  meets 
and  associates  in  a  most  beautiful  relation  of  congenial 
fellowship,  which  makes  us  feel  that  He  can  be  to  us 
also  the  sympathetic  friend  and  confidant  our  hearts 
long  for.  He  does  not  hold  Himself  aloof  from  any 
because  of  character  or  culture.  Even  for  the  doubtful, 
the  weak,  the  rough  and  uncultured  He  has  a  service  and 
freely  gives  them  His  companionship  and  confidence. 


274  THE  STJPEENATUEAL 

The  picture  is  not  a  different  one  from  that  of  the 
Gospels  but  the  same.  It  is  the  same  God  with  the 
same  heart  of  patience  and  forbearance,  ever  yearning 
over  His  wayward  friends,  warning,  encouraging,  coun- 
selling, calling  them  back  to  the  shelter  of  His  care. 

Keally  in  some  respects  the  Old  Testament  is  a  more 
practical  gospel  even  than  the  New.  The  New  Testa- 
ment presents  the  grace  of  God  in  ideal  form  and  on 
very  much  higher  levels.  But  the  Old  Testament  pre- 
sents that  same  grace  and  kindness  in  homely  operation 
among  just  the  kind  of  dull,  selfish,  exasperating  hu- 
manity that  still  makes  up  the  great  world  of  practical 
life.  The  New  Testament  is  the  Gospel  of  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven  but  the  Old  Testament  is  that  same 
gospel  as  it  practically  works  out  in  this  sordid  old 
world  in  which  most  of  us  are  still  living. 


PART  III 
The  Christ 


THE  INCAKNATION 

WE  now  come  to  what  has  always  been  con- 
sidered the  most  important  part  of  the 
Bible,  and  unquestionably  the  center  of  our 
whole  religious  system.  The  New  Testament  gives  a 
record  of  the  life  of  Jesus.  It  records  that  after  a  life 
of  something  over  thirty  years  He  died  on  a  cross,  three 
days  later  rose  alive  from  the  grave,  and  soon  ascended 
into  heaven.  It  records  that  during  the  last  three 
years  of  His  life  He  went  about  the  country  preaching 
"  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven,"  healing  the  sick  and  doing 
other  miraculous  acts  of  kindness.  It  declares  that 
this  Jesus  was  a  divine  being,  "  The  Son  of  God." 

What  meaning  are  we  to  give  to  this  great  event  ? 
How  are  we  to  coordinate  it  with  all  the  rest  that  we 
have  found  in  the  Bible  revelation  of  God  ?  Of  course 
we  are  taking  the  record  at  its  face  value  just  as  it 
comes  to  us,  and  are  accepting  every  claim  that  it 
makes  as  to  the  character  and  acts  of  Jesus. 

It  is  one  of  the  common  mistakes  of  interpretation 
to  try  to  confine  the  whole  of  a  great  event  all  to  one 
formula.  This  event  being  such  as  it  is  represented  to 
be  is  much  too  great  to  have  only  one  meaning  and  one 
value.  We  may  expect  it  to  have  many  values  and 
many  meanings.    And  yet,  while  that  is  so,  it  is  legiti- 

277 


278  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

mate  to  try  to  find  what  is  the  one  most  fundamental 
meaning,  and  what  was  the  central  purpose  that 
caused  it. 

Its  apparent  meaning  and  value  to  us  will  vary  ac- 
cording to  the  view-point  from  which  we  consider  it. 
If  we  consider  it  from  the  view-point  of  our  needs  as 
sinners  in  a  sin-cursed  world  we  will  call  Jesus  the 
Saviour,  and  consider  His  life  and  death  a  great  sacri- 
fice by  which  He  redeemed  us  from  death  and  secured 
for  us  Eternal  Life. 

This  conception  is  unquestionably  correct  from  that 
view-point.  Jesus  does  save  us  from  death  and  give 
us  eternal  life.  He  expected  and  intended  to  do  so 
when  He  came  into  the  world.  To  us  that  is  a  fact  of 
immeasurable  importance,  and  it  is  a  fact  that  has  the 
greatest  efficiency  in  touching  men's  hearts  and  attract- 
ing them  to  Jesus.  The  Church  is  entirely  right  in 
making  that  the  most  conspicuous  part  of  its  great 
gospel  appeal  to  the  world.  And  we  are  right  in 
making  it  the  ground  of  supreme  love  and  devotion  to 
Jesus. 

Anything  we  may  say  here  must  not  be  construed  as 
implying  that  Jesus  is  not  a  Saviour,  or  that  our  Chris- 
tianity is  not  to  us  a  gospel  of  salvation  from  sin  and 
death.  But  because  that  is  the  greatest  value  of  the 
fact  to  us  does  not  prove  that  it  is  necessarily  the  most 
important  meaning  of  the  fact  itself  intrinsically. 

Certainly  that  cannot  be  counted  its  primary  motive. 
We  need  hardly  pause  to  remind  ourselves  again  how 
impossible  it  would  be  to  justify  any  such  object  as  that 
as  the  primary  motive  of  a  supernatural  act  by  God. 


THE  INCAKNATION  279 

We  have  repeatedly  noted  that  it  would  be  inconsistent 
with  God's  infinite  competence  in  His  original  great  act 
of  creation  to  conceive  that  He  had  to  later  interfere 
by  a  supernatural  interposition  to  secure  some  improve- 
ment not  originally  provided  for.  Much  more  would 
it  be  so  if  it  was  to  repair  some  ruin  that  had  developed 
or  restore  something  that  had  gone  astray. 

We  must  view  this  great  fact  in  the  light  of  all  that 
went  before  it  in  that  long  working  of  this  same  God 
to  which  we  give  the  name  Evolution  Process,  and  we 
must  give  it  some  interpretation  and  some  purpose 
which  is  consistent  with  all  the  rest  of  that  great  proc- 
ess and  an  integral  part  of  it. 

The  Fact  of  the  Incarnation 
From  that  point  of  view  we  must  see  that  the  most 
significant  thing  is  the  fact  itself.  The  most  important 
thing  is  the  fact  that  God  became  man,  that  the  infinite 
being  who  transcends  our  highest  powers  of  thought 
placed  Himself  on  the  same  plane  and  under  the  same 
limitations  as  one  of  the  little  creatures  He  had  made. 
Not  the  Atonement  but  the  Incarnation  is  the  great 
pregnant  fact  which  we  must  count  as  central.  If  we 
have  gotten  even  a  faint  conception  of  the  immeasurable 
greatness  of  God  we  will  feel  that  this  becoming  man 
is  such  an  exceedingly  great  fact  as  to  overshadow 
everything  else  associated  with  it.  The  great  fact  of 
Christ  is  the  Incarnation. 

One  reason  that  we  have  not  heretofore  been  suffi- 
ciently impressed  with  the  surpassing  greatness  of  this 
fact  is  because  in  the  traditional  theology  we  have  been 


280  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

so  dazed  by  the  majesty  of  its  setting  that  we  have 
attempted  to  interpret  it  in  terms  that  really  did  not 
contain  it.  We  have  said  that  the  divine  being  merely 
took  into  union  with  Himself  a  human  soul  and  body 
and  caused  it  to  go  through  the  experiences  of  suffering 
and  death  that  we  saw  in  Jesus.  This  in  itself  would 
be  an  act  of  no  great  magnitude,  and  might  be  merely 
a  minor  item  of  the  preparation  for  some  greater  work. 

More  recently  we  have  come  to  feel  that  this  does 
not  fill  the  conditions  represented,  and  under  various 
names  and  theories  we  have  begun  to  insist  that  in 
some  way  the  divine  being  Himself  became  the  man, 
and  that  the  soul  of  this  man  was  none  else  than  the 
divine  being  Himself.  But  the  complacency  which  we 
have  inherited  from  the  older  conception  is  still  strong 
upon  us,  and  the  enormous  significance  of  this  new 
meaning  is  slow  in  coming  to  full  realization  in  our 
feelings. 

Many  men  indeed,  under  the  influence  of  the  scien- 
tific conception  of  God's  greatness,  have  been  so  im- 
pressed with  that  feature  that  they  have  felt  unable  to 
believe  a  real  Incarnation,  and  so  have  challenged  the 
divinity  entirely.  But  the  great  body  of  Christians, 
while  realizing  that  we  must  meet  the  problem  of  how 
it  could  be  possible  and  what  adequate  and  suitable 
reason  there  could  be  for  such  a  fact,  still  insist  that  it 
did  take  place.  If  it  did  take  place  certainly  it  was  an 
event  of  such  immeasurable  greatness  that  the  fact  it- 
self must  be  considered  the  matter  of  chief  significance, 
and  from  that  standpoint  we  must  seek  its  interpreta- 
tion. 


THE  INCAKNATION  281 

Possibility  of  the  Incarnation 
The  problem  of  how  such  a  thing  as  the  Incarnation, 
God  becoming  man,  could  be  possible,  need  give  us  no 
particular  anxiety.  While  we  can  perhaps  come  no 
nearer  solving  it  than  we  can  any  of  the  common 
problems  of  the  genesis  and  growth  of  our  own  souls, 
yet  it  does  not  now  present  to  our  minds  any  of  the 
contradictions  that  it  seemed  to  present  a  generation 
ago.  With  the  dogmatism  of  ignorance  we  used  to 
make  various  rigid  definitions  of  the  nature  of  mind 
and  soul,  of  such  a  character  as  to  preclude  the  pos- 
sibility of  much  that  is  implied  in  the  Incarnation. 
Now  with  more  wisdom  we  have  come  to  realize  that 
we  do  not  know  nearly  as  much  as  we  supposed  in  re- 
gard to  that  matter. 

Many  recent  discoveries  and  deductions  in  psychology 
have  tended  to  very  materially  alter  and  expand  our 
conceptions  of  the  nature  of  soul  or  life  and  of  what  it 
can  do.  For  instance,  the  familiar  fact  of  ordinary 
generation,  the  soul  or  life  of  the  child  emanating  from 
the  soul  or  life  of  its  parents,  is  really  a  fact  which 
carries  very  radical  implications  as  to  the  nature  and 
possibilities  of  a  soul. 

Or  take  another  fact  of  the  same  general  import. 
We  find  that  though  there  is  a  life-consciousness 
common  to  our  whole  body  yet  every  separate  cell  of 
our  body  has  such  an  independent  endowment  of  life 
that  it  can  continue  to  live,  grow  and  execute  its 
ordinary  functions  when  completely  severed  from  the 
body.  This  it  can  do  not  only  when  grafted  into  some 
other  body  but  even  entirely  separate  and  alone. 


282  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

Even  more  suggestive  is  the  well-known  phenomenon 
of  "  Multiple  Personality,"  where  a  single  man  has  two 
or  more  distinct  streams  of  thought,  consciousness  and 
volition,  as  independent  of  each  other  apparently  as  if 
it  were  two  distinct  persons  that  were  doing  the  acting 
and  thinking. 

These  and  other  facts  have  seemed  to  demonstrate 
that  soul  or  life  is  a  very  different  kind  of  entity  from 
what  it  was  once  supposed  to  be.  Consciousness  and 
personality  are  not  the  very  essence  of  the  soul,  as  they 
were  formerly  assumed  to  be.  Not  only  can  a  single 
soul  develop  into  various  kinds  of  plurality,  but  the 
same  soul  or  life  is  capable  of  simultaneously  carrying 
on  within  itself  two  or  more  streams  or  syntheses  of 
consciousness  independent  of  each  other.  The  soul  is  a 
great  efficient  something,  and  it  has  ability  to  carry  on 
acts  and  to  effect  or  experience  consciousness,  but 
neither  the  acts  nor  the  consciousness  are  the  essence 
of  the  soul  itself.  They  are  both  alike  merely  func- 
tions, or  things  that  it  does.  And  the  same  soul  may 
have  going  on  at  the  same  time  two  or  more,  not  only 
of  the  streams  of  acts  but  of  the  streams  of  conscious- 
ness as  well. 

Such  facts  as  these  have  led  us  to  see  the  danger  of 
negative  dogmatism.  They  have  made  us  see  that  the 
nature  of  the  soul  or  mind,  and  its  capability  may  be 
something  far  greater  and  more  versatile  than  we  had 
supposed.  They  have  made  us  feel  that  it  may  not  be 
at  all  impossible  for  an  infinite  divine  mind  to  function 
in  a  variety  of  different  forms  and  different  capacities, 
indeed  in  as  many  manners  and  forms  as  it  may  choose. 


THE  INCAKNATION  283 

For  that  is  what  we  must  consider  that  Incarnation 
would  be.  It  would  be  the  mind  of  God  functioning 
within  the  limitations,  capacities  and  experiences  usual 
to  an  ordinary  human  mind.  It  does  not  mean  chang- 
ing His  substance  and  becoming  composed  of  other 
substance.  It  does  not  necessarily  mean  His  ceasing 
to  be  all  that  He  was  before  or  ceasing  to  carry  on  all 
the  other  functions  that  He  was  carrying  on  before. 
Nor  would  it  mean  His  adding  anything,  as  He  cer- 
tainly had  before  all  the  capacities  that  a  human  mind 
has. 

"We  need  not  profess  to  explain  and  define  the  method 
of  the  Incarnation,  but  we  may  entirely  dismiss  all 
thought  of  impossibility  or  contradictoriness  in  con- 
nection with  it.  Many  things  that  we  already  know 
of  the  nature  of  mind  point  directly  towards  its  possi- 
bility and  there  is  nothing  that  really  contradicts  it. 
The  fact  itself  we  may  perhaps  define  as  follows: — 
The  infinite  being  God  not  only  inhabiting  and  oper- 
ating a  physical  body  like  that  of  a  man  but  also  with 
a  consciousness  located  there  feeling  all  the  sensations 
and  experiences  that  a  man  experiences,  and  thinking, 
perceiving,  willing  and  acting  with  the  same  measure 
of  capacity  as  an  ordinary  man  possesses.  All  this  of 
course  with  a  feeling  of  perfect  sympathy  and  brother- 
liness  towards  other  men. 

This  is  what  we  may  consider  Jesus  to  have  been, 
and  this  is  what  we  may  define  Incarnation  to  mean. 
It  must  at  least  have  been  something  the  equivalent  of 
that,  for  Jesus  emphatically  declared,  "He  that  hath 
seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father,"  and  at  the  same  time 


284  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

He  was  always  emphasizing  the  fact  that  He  was  "  The 
Son  of  Man." 


PlJEPOSE  OF  THE  LtfCAENATION 

The  next  question  is  as  to  the  reason  for  the  Incar- 
nation. If  God  thus  became  a  man  why  did  He  do  it  ? 
What  place  had  such  an  act  in  His  great  perfect  scheme 
of  universe  building  ?  What  is  its  place  in  God's  great 
evolution  scheme?  There  is  really  the  fundamental 
problem.  That  is  the  one  crucial  question  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Incarnation.  We  cannot  conceive  of 
God  doing  such  an  act  without  a  sufficient  reason, 
and  what  reason  could  be  sufficient  for  such  an  act  as 
that? 

We  may  say  at  once  that  the  producing  purpose  was 
not  the  Atonement.  It  was  not  done  primarily  as  a 
preparation  for  atoning  for  men's  sins.  That  is  not  at 
all  implying  that  the  atonement  is  not  true.  It  is  not 
saying  that  atonement  and  sacrifice  did  not  result  as  a 
necessary  consequence  of  that  incarnation.  But  that 
was  not  the  formal  and  fundamental  purpose  of  it. 
We  cannot  believe  that  such  a  purpose  could  produce 
such  an  act,  or  indeed  any  supernatural  act.  We  have 
already  a  number  of  times  considered  this  same  ques- 
tion. We  could  not  conceive  of  God  doing  a  super- 
natural act  primarily  in  order  to  restore  an}^thing  or 
repair  anything  or  to  supply  any  need  or  deficiency  in 
the  results  of  ordinary  evolution. 

The  purpose  of  the  Incarnation  was  precisely  the 
same  purpose  as  that  of  all  the  supernatural  in  the  Old 
Testament.     It  was  just  a  great  act  of  fellowship.     It 


THE  INCARNATION  285 

was  merely  God  carrying  out  fully  His  purpose  to 
engage  in  fellowship  with  men.  It  was  really  an  act 
which  belongs  in  the  same  series  with  all  those  Old 
Testament  acts,  merely  the  culmination  and  most  per- 
fect one  of  all  those  acts,  all  having  the  same  purpose 
and  the  same  meaning.  Its  object  and  meaning  was 
the  complete  inauguration  of  fellowship  between  God 
and  men,  a  purpose  which,  as  we  have  seen,  seems  to 
be  the  natural  culmination  of  the  whole  evolution 
process. 

It  is  simply  God  doing  in  perfect  degree  what  He 
had  partially  done  in  all  the  Old  Testament  super- 
natural, namely,  meeting  with  men  on  the  plane  of 
perfect  fellowship,  thus  fully  inaugurating  that  new 
step  in  the  evolution  progress  by  inviting  and  drawing 
men  into  a  state  of  fellowship  with  Himself. 

With  such  an  interpretation  the  Incarnation  becomes 
luminous  with  meaning.  All  the  other  things  that 
result  from  it,  such  as  the  atonement,  the  teaching  and 
the  ethical  example,  fall  naturally  into  their  logical 
place,  and  all  the  difficulties  with  regard  to  it  entirely 
disappear.  It  is  the  natural  and  fitting  culmination  of 
God's  one  great  universe  act. 

Its  Place  in  the  Evolution  Scheme 
All  down  through  the  cycling  ages  God  had  been 
leisurely  carrying  on  an  enterprise  of  evolution  by 
which  He  finally  produced  a  race  of  beings  capable  of 
engaging  in  fellowship  with  Himself.  With  the  dawn 
of  Bible  history  He  is  seen  beginning  that  fellowship 
with  them.     The  Old  Testament  records  the  earlier, 


286  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

tentative  advances.  There  were  occasionally  at  long 
intervals  acts  of  (supernatural)  kindness  and  friendli- 
ness to  individuals  and  to  one  selected  nation.  Along 
with  this  there  was  also  a  continuous  fellowship  of  con- 
versation with  them  through  the  prophets  and  inspired 
men.  All  this  was  a  true  intercourse  of  fellowship, 
though  somewhat  veiled  and  reserved. 

But  we  must  believe  that  whatever  God  undertakes 
to  do  He  will  ultimately  do  in  the  most  complete  and 
effective  degree  possible.  If  He  has  proposed  to  bestow 
fellowship  upon  men  we  may  expect  that  in  due  time 
He  will  bestow  a  fellowship  that  is  the  fullest  and  most 
complete  kind  possible. 

The  fullest  and  most  complete  kind  of  fellowship  He 
could  bestow  would  be  for  Himself  to  become  a  man, 
stand  on  the  same  level  side  by  side  with  other  men, 
sharing  all  their  experiences  and  giving  them  all  the 
outflow  of  sympathy  and  friendship  that  perfect  love 
could  bestow.  That  would  be  the  complete  bestowal 
of  perfect  fellowship. 

That  is  precisely  what  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ 
He  did.  And  that  purpose  is  one  that  gives  us  an  en- 
tirely adequate  and  appropriate  reason  for  the  Incarna- 
tion. That  is  what  we  must  believe  the  Incarnation 
and  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ  really  mean.  And  therein 
we  see  that,  instead  of  being  abnormal,  incredible  and 
contrary  to  science,  this  Incarnation  of  God  is  some- 
thing that  not  only  religion  but  the  evolution  process 
in  its  highest  interpretation  actually  calls  for,  and  evo- 
lution could  not  have  its  highest  culmination  with- 
out it. 


THE  INCAKNATION  287 

Fellowship  Always  Specific  and  Limited 
If  we  are  to  interpret  the  incarnation  of  God  in  Jesus 
Christ  entirely  as  an  act  of  fellowship  then  we  must 
expect  that,  like  all  the  Old  Testament  acts  of  fellow- 
ship, it  shall  strictly  conform  to  the  rules  and  essential 
conditions  of  fellowship.  One  of  these,  as  we  have 
seen,  is  that  fellowship  is  a  personal  thing  and  re- 
stricted in  its  bestowal  to  specific  persons.  It  is  not  a 
general  benevolence  available  to  all  that  will  take  it, 
but  must  be  specifically  limited  and  bestowed  on  some 
definite  individual  or  group.  It  might  seem  at  first 
that  in  Jesus'  case  there  was  an  exception  to  this,  as 
we  believe  Him  to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  world  with  no 
restrictions  to  His  love  and  grace. 

That  is  certainly  true  of  the  results  of  His  life,  and 
it  is  true  that  He  offers  fellowship  now  to  any  one  any- 
where who  will  come, — personally  and  individually, — 
and  accept  His  fellowship.  And  yet  when  we  consider 
the  historical  fact,  the  actual  earthly  life  itself  and  the 
acts  of  Jesus,  we  find  there  is  no  exception  there  to  the 
rule.  It  all  conforms  to  this  law  of  fellowship,  pre- 
cisely as  all  the  other  fellowship  acts  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment did. 

Jesus'  fellowship  was  not  bestowed  upon  the  world 
at  large.  It  was  distinctly  restricted  and  was  all  actu- 
ally confined  to  one  party,  to  the  same  party  that  had 
been  the  recipient  of  all  the  Old  Testament  fellowship, 
the  party  that  God  had  established  a  special  bond  of 
pledged  fellowship  with.  To  the  Syro-Phoenician 
woman  Jesus  said : — "  I  am  not  sent  but  unto  the  lost 
sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel "  (Matt.  15  :  24).    We  have 


288  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

no  right  to  think  that  Jesus  did  not  know  what  He 
was  saying  or  did  not  mean  what  He  said. 

This  saying  which  we  have  often  made  such  strenu- 
ous efforts  to  explain  away  is  really  a  very  important 
and  fundamental  one.  The  principle  here  stated  is 
confirmed  by  an  examination  of  all  His  recorded  life. 
He  did  confine  His  work  and  His  fellowship  to  that 
nation,  and  never  went  out  of  it  for  work.  Even  when 
some  Greeks, — men  of  another  nation, — came  to  Him  in 
Jerusalem  and  wished  to  meet  Him  it  required  quite  an 
amount  of  planning  to  get  the  audience,  and  it  called 
out  in  Jesus  some  of  His  deepest  reflections  as  being  an 
unusual  event  (John  12 :  20  ff.). 

He  loved  all  people  in  all  the  world,  and  desired  to 
have  fellowship  with  them  all  every  one.  And  this  in- 
carnate life  and  fellowship  He  was  now  giving  He 
hoped  would  eventually  bring  men  from  all  nations  to 
seek  and  accept  that  fellowship.  But  the  life  and  the 
acts  themselves,  if  they  were  to  be  real  fellowship  and 
not  merely  benevolence  and  charity,  must  be  given  to 
those  with  whom  there  was  a  distinct  bond  of  relation 
and  fellowship,  namely,  this  Jewish  nation. 

It  was  when  He  should  be  "  lifted  up  "  and  this  act 
of  fellowship  closed,  that  all  men  should  be  drawn  to 
Him,  and  of  course  none  that  come  to  Him  would  ever 
be  turned  away.  He  would  open  up  a  relation  of 
friendship  and  fellowship  with  each  and  every  one  of 
those  that  sought  it, — personally  and  one  by  one.  But 
that  is  an  entirely  different  matter  from  this  act  in 
which  He  had  "come  down"  and  on  His  own  part 
from  His  own  side  unasked,  bestowed  fellowship.     In 


THE  INCARNATION  289 

that  case  He  bestowed  only  upon  a  people  to  whom  He 
had  long  sustained  a  relation  of  plighted  friendship,  a 
relation  that  distinctly  justified  and  called  for  the  be- 
stowal of  friendly  fellowship. 

It  was  because  this  coming  of  Jesus  as  a  supernatural 
act  was  under  the  same  restrictions  and  conditions  in 
this  respect  as  all  the  other  supernatural  acts  that  it 
also  was  limited  to  this  group  with  whom  God  was 
carrying  on  the  relation  of  fellowship,  namely,  Israel, 
and  was  not  directed  in  general  to  any  and  every  na- 
tion, though  the  results  of  His  coming,  as  indeed  the 
results  of  all  the  other  Old  Testament  supernatural 
acts,  were  eventually  to  benefit  all  the  world. 

The  Peesonality  of  Jesus 
If  the  meaning  we  are  to  see  in  Jesus  is  a  revelation 
of  God,  and  the  object  is  fellowship,  then  the  most  im- 
portant thing  in  the  Gospels  is  not  the  sermon  on  the 
mount  or  the  great  theological  discourses  in  John. 
The  most  important  thing  in  the  Gospels  is  Jesus  Him- 
self. We  read  the  Gospels  not  to  know  what  Jesus 
taught  but  to  know  Jesus.  Far  more  important  than 
anything  He  said  or  did  is  the  sight  of  Him  saying  and 
doing,  and  the  touch  of  the  divine  heart  that  lay  be- 
hind the  words  and  deeds.  It  is  the  personality  rather 
than  the  product  that  is  important. 

Not  doctrines  about  His  person  but  to  really  know 
Him  as  a  person,  not  analysis  of  His  character  but 
really  to  come  into  contact  with  Him  as  friend  with 
friend  and  let  that  character  have  its  influence  upon 
us,  that  is  the  way  we  really  get  the  intended  benefit 


290  THE  SUPEENATUEAL 

of  the  Gospels.  The  art  critic  who  should  critically 
examine  the  canvas,  learn  the  chemical  composition  of 
all  the  colours  and  the  mathematical  dimensions  of  all 
the  lines  and  shapes,  but  fail  to  see  that  it  is  a  picture 
and  be  touched  by  its  beauty,  has  not  gotten  the  highest 
value  out  of  his  subject. 

To  really  come  into  touch  with  Jesus  and  get  the 
full  influence  that  the  gospel  picture  was  intended  to 
afford,  we  must  put  out  of  mind  all  the  psychological 
problems  about  infinite  God  becoming  man,  and  the 
theological  problems  of  His  nature.  We  must  forget 
for  the  time  all  about  Atonement,  and  not  even  let  the 
consciousness  of  His  divinity  obtrude  too  much  into 
our  thoughts.  We  must  look  upon  Him  purely  as  a 
man.  For  that  was  what  the  whole  event  was,  namely, 
God  becoming  man,  and  if  we  fail  to  feel  Him  abso- 
lutely a  man  we  fail  of  the  very  object  God  was  at 
such  infinite  pains  to  secure.  If  it  was  worth  God's 
while  to  take  all  the  pains  to  become  a  man,  surely  it 
is  worth  our  while  frankly  and  fully  to  consider  Him 
a  man  and  meet  with  Him  as  a  man. 

In  all  His  relations  He  was  genuinely  a  man.  He 
lived  His  life  not  in  any  official  capacity,  except  as 
every  man's  heart  and  the  Spirit  of  God  in  him  will 
mark  out  a  beckoning  path  of  service.  Even  after  He 
began  His  public  work  it  was  the  heart  of  the  honest 
carpenter  that  still  beat  within  Him  and  that  went  out 
in  understanding  sympathy  to  all  with  whom  He 
mingled. 

His  most  intimate  disciples  seem  all  to  have  been 
from  the  labouring  classes,  though  doubtless  many  just 


THE  INCAKNATION  291 

as  sincere  and  earnest  could  have  been  obtained  from 
more  educated  circles,  and  one  such  man,  Paul,  did 
have  to  be  found  later  outside  the  twelve  to  be  the 
doctrinal  interpreter  of  the  new  faith.  Various 
reasons  have  been  suggested  for  this,  but  we  seem 
usually  to  entirely  overlook  the  most  obvious  reason, 
namely,  that  Jesus  Himself  was  a  labouring  man.  Men 
of  that  class  would  naturally  be  more  congenial  to  Him 
and  He  to  them.  We  must  not  suppose  that  the  tastes 
and  feelings  that  rule  other  men  were  absent  from  Him. 
As  well  suppose  that  He  was  not  man  at  all  as  to  sup- 
pose that  in  any  essential  respect  He  was  not  the  same 
kind  of  man  that  any  other  man  in  His  circumstances 
would  have  been. 

The  Model  Friend 

There  are  a  number  of  things  in  the  record  which 
are  very  difficult  to  account  for  on  any  other  theory  of 
the  meaning  of  Christ's  coming  which  are  not  only 
easily  explainable  but  very  instructive  as  well  if  we 
realize  that  the  whole  movement  was  a  matter  of 
offered  friendship  and  fellowship  by  God  to  men. 

One  of  these  difficult  things  is  Judas.  His  relations 
to  Judas  cannot  be  accounted  for  as  merely  a  mistake 
growing  out  of  the  human  limitations  of  Jesus.  Jesus 
never  was  mistaken  in  the  character  of  Judas.  We  are 
plainly  told  that  He  read  his  character  from  the  be- 
ginning (John  6  :  64).  His  defection  was  not  a  sudden 
emotional  break  merely,  for  he  had  long  been  dishonest 
(John  12:6).  To  imagine  that  Jesus  distinctly  chose 
him  for  the  purpose  of  having  one  of  His  disciples  be- 


292  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

tray  Him,  in  order  to  fulfill  prophecy  or  something  of 
that  kind,  would  be  to  make  the  whole  matter  too 
much  like  merely  a  melodramatic  suicide. 

Jesus  chose  Judas  on  the  same  ground  that  He  chose 
all  the  others,  namely,  that  he  eagerly  responded  to  His 
appeal  for  friendship  by  trust.  That  was  the  one  thing 
He  preeminently  wanted.  True  his  was  not  fully  the 
kind  of  trust  He  wanted,  nor  was  that  of  any  of  the 
others  at  first.  None  of  them  had  at  first  either  the 
character  or  the  beliefs  He  wished  them  to  have,  and 
it  is  quite  possible  that  Judas  averaged  up  fairly  well 
with  the  others  in  that  respect. 

The  important  thing  is  that  the  whole  matter  was 
on  the  plane  of  friendship  and  governed  by  the  rules 
that  apply  to  friendship.  He  expected  to  eventually 
win  the  world  not  chiefly  by  logic  or  learning  but  by 
the  drawing  power  of  friendship  and  sympathy.  And 
so  friendship  was  the  one  criterion  by  which  He  chose 
His  disciples,  those  who  were  to  be  His  representatives 
and  carry  on  the  work  after  He  was  gone. 

Having  once  given  His  friendship  the  bond  could  only 
be  broken  by  the  other  party.  He  would  never  with- 
draw it  once  given.  The  record  is  that  "  Having  loved 
.  .  .  He  loved  unto  the  end  "  (John  13 : 1),  Judas 
being  implicitly  included.  Whether  or  not  He  still 
had  hope  of  being  able  to  reform  Judas,  at  any  rate  He 
was  too  much  of  a  man  of  honour  and  too  true  a  friend 
to  withdraw  for  any  cause  a  pledged  friendship  once 
given.  And  the  same  thing  is  equally  true  to-day. 
The  only  thing  that  will  ever  put  any  man  outside  the 
circle  of  Jesus'  friends  is  for  him  himself  to  break  or 


THE  INCARNATION  293 

repudiate  the  bond  of  friendship.  Jesus  will  never  do 
it  no  matter  how  great  the  provocation.  There  is  as 
great  a  lesson  in  Judas  as  in  "  the  thief  on  the  cross." 

There  are  many  indications  that  all  the  disciples 
were  rather  heart  friends  than  critically  selected  ap- 
prentices. They  were  all  merely  men  of  His  own 
class  and  social  level,  who,  partly  for  that  reason,  had 
made  a  whole-hearted  response  to  the  appeal  of  His 
friendship.  That  was  the  one  thing  He  wanted,  and 
He  was  willing  to  rest  His  cause  on  that  rather  than 
on  scholarship,  eloquence  or  political  power. 

He  apparently  aimed  to  influence  His  disciples  rather 
by  His  personality  than  by  His  words,  otherwise  how 
can  we  account  for  it  that  not  till  they  had  been  with 
Him  more  than  a  year  did  they  come  to  the  full  realiza- 
tion of  His  divinity  (Matt.  16  :  13  ff.),  a  truth  that  He 
was  much  rejoiced  to  have  them  feel  and  which  He 
surely  could  have  fully  proved  to  them  inside  of  a  week 
by  teaching  if  it  had  been  His  plan  to  do  it  that  way. 
As  it  was  He  said  it  came  to  them  through  the  heart, 
directly  through  contact  with  the  divine  spirit. 

The  whole  picture  is  the  picture  of  a  friend  bestow- 
ing the  riches  of  His  divinely  precious  fellowship  upon 
a  chosen  circle  of  friends,  that  they  might  go  out  to 
the  world  with  the  glow  of  that  friendship  upon  them, 
to  thereby  attract  others  into  the  circle  of  the  same 
precious  fellowship.  That  is  the  way  His  cause  has 
always  won  its  converts  and  the  way  it  is  winning 
them  to-day, — by  the  touch  of  Christ-filled  lives  rather 
than  by  the  pressure  of  logic  and  scientific  "  Christian 
evidences." 


294  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

Not  that  His  words  are  not  a  rich  storehouse  of 
profitable  teaching.  Of  course  there  were  wise  say- 
ings, profitable  advice  and  deep  theological  truths 
given  in  His  conversations  with  His  disciples  and 
others.  He  would  not  be  a  true  friend  if  He  did  not, 
since  He  could,  put  much  profitable  conversation  into 
His  fellowship  with  them.  He  could  not  otherwise 
have  given  them  that  full  outflow  of  His  heart  which 
fellowship  implies.  He  was  purer  and  more  spiritual 
than  other  men,  and  the  stores  of  profitable  truth  were 
there  and  must  come  out  if  He  spoke  at  all. 

But  if  He  was  speaking  just  for  the  sake  of  revealing 
truths  how  can  we  account  for  it  that  He  never  com- 
mitted a  single  truth  He  had  revealed  to  permanent 
written  record,  and  made  no  provision  for  having  it 
done  ?  Nor  was  there  any  attempt  made  apparently  to 
put  on  record  a  single  word  that  He  had  spoken  for 
many  years  after  He  had  gone  away. 

More  than  that,  though  for  three  years  He  was  con- 
stantly busy  teaching,  preaching  and  talking  to  people, 
and  probably  if  all  He  spoke  were  written  it  would  be 
enough  to  fill  hundreds  of  volumes,  yet  of  all  His 
divine  words  we  have  left  preserved  to  us  less  all  told 
than  could  be  easily  spoken  in  three  or  four  hours' 
time. 

This  is  all  quite  unaccountable  except  on  the  one 
principle  that  it  was  not  the  intrinsic  value  of  the 
truths  taught  that  was  the  important  thing  so  much 
as  the  social  touch  with  Him  the  speaker.  His  words 
and  speaking  were  of  value  chiefly  as  means  to 
reveal  Him  Himself. 


THE  INCAKNATION  295 

Dislike  for  Publicity 

Another  very  strange  fact  is  His  command  to  His 
disciples  not  to  tell  the  people  that  He  was  the  expected 
Christ  (Matt.  16  :  20).  If  He  was  the  expected  Christ, 
and  the  success  of  His  mission  depended  on  His  being 
accepted  as  such,  why  does  He  forbid  His  disciples  to 
frankly  tell  the  people  that  He  is  so?  What  expla- 
nation can  we  give  of  this  except  that  He  considered  the 
influence  of  His  personality  at  that  stage  far  more 
important  than  right  beliefs  as  to  the  nature  of  His 
person?  And  He  knew  that  the  agitation  of  their 
thoughts  over  the  knowledge  of  who  He  was  would 
interfere  with  their  receiving  the  quiet,  deep  influences 
of  His  personality.  To  try  to  look  at  the  sun  blinds 
our  eyes.  We  get  the  most  benefit  by  just  letting  its 
light  shine  about  us. 

When  the  Pharisees  asked  Him  to  show  them  a  sign 
from  heaven  and  they  would  believe  His  claims  to  be 
the  Messiah  (Mark  8:11,  12;  John  6:20,  etc.),  He 
refused.  Why  did  He  refuse  ?  The  working  of 
miracles  was  an  every-day  occurrence  with  Him.  Why 
not  work  one  now?  It  is  quite  possible  that  they 
would  have  been  as  good  as  their  word  and  have 
formally  acknowledged  Him  as  the  Messiah  if  He  had 
complied  with  their  test  and  done  a  suitable  miracle. 
Why  does  He  refuse  such  a  natural  test  when  the 
working  of  miracles  was  such  a  constant  part  of  His 
every-day  work  ? 

Equally  strange  is  another  similar  fact,  His  constant 
reluctance  to  display  His  miracles  and  frequent  direct 
attempts  to  conceal  them.     He  frequently  commands 


296  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

the  person  healed  not  to  tell  any  one  of  his  healing 
(cf.  Matt.  8  :  4,  etc.).  He  leads  or  sends  others  away 
in  order  that  the  healing  may  be  in  private  and 
away  from  the  public  observation  (Mark  8 :  23 ;  John 
9  :  7,  etc.).    Why  did  He  do  so  ? 

He  Himself  recognizes  and  appeals  to  His  miracles 
as  affording  proof  of  His  divinity  (John  10:38;14:11, 
etc.),  and  yet  He  all  the  time  seems  to  wish  to  hide 
them  and  keep,  them  private,  as  though  they  were  a 
burden  and  He  wished  He  did  not  have  to  be  discom- 
moded by  them. 

"We  have  been  accustomed  to  say  it  was  because  the 
success  of  His  miracles  increased  the  envy  of  His 
enemies  and  hastened  His  death,  and  He  wished  to 
prolong  His  time  for  teaching.  But  this  is  hardly  a 
sufficient  or  a  satisfactory  answer. 

The  true  reason  was  that  He  had  come  from  heaven 
and  become  man  expressly  that  He  might  meet  men  in 
fellowship  on  their  own  level,  and  He  grudged  every- 
thing that  tended  to  make  Him  seem  different  from 
them.  He  had  such  a  heart  of  sympathy  that  He  could 
not  help  healing  suffering  men  whenever  the}''  appealed 
to  Him,  but  He  constantly  felt  the  price  He  had  to  pay 
in  that  condition  of  specialness  which  it  raised  up  as  a 
barrier  between  Him  and  the  hearts  of  those  with  whom 
He  met  and  whom  He  wished  to  touch  as  brothers. 

He  wanted  not  the  wonder  and  admiration  of  men 
but  their  confiding  affection.  He  wanted  the  same 
feeling  they  had  for  the  human  friend  that  was  most 
near  to  them.  Everything  that  made  Him  seem  dif- 
ferent from  other  men  by  just  so  much  made  more 


THE  INCAKNATIOtf  297 

difficult  that  relation  of  familiar,  homely  affection.  He 
could  have  inspired  wonder  and  admiration  as  God  in 
heaven,  and  did  so  in  Old  Testament  times.  The  other 
— the  homely  affection, — He  considered  so  important 
that  it  was  worth  leaving  heaven  and  becoming  man  to 
obtain  it. 

The  mediaeval  Church  entirely  missed  this  truth. 
They  fixed  their  gaze  so  constantly  on  the  divinity  as 
to  miss  entirely  the  feeling  of  this  humanity  He  con- 
sidered so  important,  and  as  a  result  had  to  bring  in  the 
virgin  mother  and  the  saints  to  supply  this  void  their 
mistake  had  made.  We  even  yet  have  not  entirely 
recovered  from  that  mistake.  We  are  accustomed  to 
think  of  Jesus'  ministry  as  consisting  of  only  the  three 
years  of  His  itinerancy.  Future  generations  may  come 
to  know  Him  more  fully  as  He  wished  to  be  known. 
They  may  realize  what  He  became  man  for,  and  to 
them  His  thirty  years  in  the  Nazareth  carpenter  shop 
may  bring  quite  as  much  soul  comfort  and  strength  as 
the  three  years  of  His  harassed  publicity. 

Jesus'  Miracles 

The  Incarnation  itself  is  the  supreme  miracle,  but 
the  life  of  Jesus  also  presents  many  cases  of  specific 
miracles.  Indeed  so  great  is  their  number  that  they 
dominate  the  story,  and  we  have  very  little  account  of 
the  acts  of  Jesus  that  do  not  have  something  of  the 
miraculous  about  them. 

If  the  great  miracle  of  the  Incarnation  is  true  we 
need  not  stop  to  justify  the  occurrence  of  these  specific 
miracles.     Accepting  them   as  they  are  recorded  we 


298  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL 

shall  only  ask,  What  is  their  meaning  ?    What  is  their 
purpose  ?    What  is  their  value  ? 

Various  answers  are  given.  They  are  the  proof  of 
the  divinity  of  Christ.  They  are  to  attest  the  truth  of 
the  doctrines  He  taught  and  the  salvation  He  promised. 
They  are  to  give  us  confidence  to  trust  Him  by  seeing 
His  power  and  what  He  did.  All  of  these  answers 
and  others  may  be  true  without  yet  being  the  true 
answer  as  to  what  the  meaning  of  the  miracles  is. 

To  get  the  true  answer  we  must  consider  two  or  three 
separate  aspects.  We  must  consider  not  only  what  good 
resulted  from  them.  That  is  one  meaning.  Another 
question  is,  What  was  God's  purpose  in  them  ?  Still  an- 
other is,  What  was  their  genesis  in  the  mind  of  Christ  ? 

These  last  two  questions  are  not  the  same.  Jesus 
was  a  man  and  thought  and  wished  as  a  man.  To  Jesus 
His  miracles  were  a  burden  because  they  interfered 
with  the  great  passion  and  pleasure  of  His  life,  which 
was  to  get  near  to  men  and  feel  their  familiar  affection. 
God's  Spirit  saw  a  value  in  their  occurrence  that  out- 
weighed the  disadvantages  they  brought  in  this  respect, 
so  God  allowed  that  they  should  be  done.  And  yet  the 
cause  in  Jesus'  mind  that  brought  them  about  was  not  this 
wider  advantage  they  would  bring  but  something  else. 

The  cause  that  produced  them  practically  every  one 
was  pure  human  sympathy.  It  was  the  passion  to  help 
men  and  relieve  their  sufferings.  Jesus  fully  realized 
the  purpose  which  in  God's  plan  the  miracles  served. 
He  knew  they  really  did  prove  His  divinity  and  attest 
His  authority.  "  Believe  the  works  that  ye  may  know 
that  the  Father  is  in  me  "  (John  10  :  38).     "  The  works 


THE  INCAENATION  299 

that  I  do  bear  witness  that  the  Father  hath  sent  me  " 
(John  5  :  36).  Once  in  the  very  act  of  doing  the  mira- 
cle He  called  attention  to  its  evidential  value.  "  That 
ye  may  know  that  the  Son  of  Man  hath  power  on  earth 
to  forgive  sins  .  .  .  arise  and  go  unto  thy  house  " 
(Matt.  9  :  6).  But  even  so  that  was  not  the  primary 
purpose  that  prompted  His  miracles.  Neither  in  this 
one  nor  in  any  of  the  others  was  the  cause  that  led 
Him  to  do  the  miracle  its  teaching  or  evidential  value. 
We  know  this  because  He  positively  refused  to  do  a 
miracle  for  a  sign. 

The  motive  that  prompted  Him  was  pure  sympathy 
responding  to  the  appeals  of  distress.  It  is  the  same 
motive  that  prompts  the  mother  to  give  help  in  response 
to  the  moans  of  her  sick  babe.  To  give  the  help  does 
prove  that  she  has  mother  love,  and  that  she  is  good 
and  kind.  But  she  does  not  do  it  for  that  purpose, — to 
evidence  those  things.  If  she  did  do  it  intentionally 
to  evidence  those  things  that  fact  would  seriously  im- 
pair its  value  as  evidence  of  those  very  things.  If  you 
do  a  kind  deed  purposely  to  show  that  you  are  kind  it 
does  not  show  that  you  are  kind  at  all, — merely  that 
you  are  vain.  So  all  Jesus'  miracles  were  purely  the 
result  of  His  human  sympathy  responding  to  the  appeal 
of  distress  and  of  trust, — an  appeal  that  He  never  found 
Himself  able  to  resist.  And  it  is  because  they  were  so 
that  they  have  such  evidential  value. 

The  Miracles  Proof  of  Jesus'  Humanity 
It  has  always  been  considered  that  the  miracles  of 
Jesus  prove  His  divinity.     But  if  we  will  think  more 


300  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

deeply  we  will  see  that  much  more  do  they  prove  His 
humanity. 

"VYe  have  seen  that  all  the  miracles  of  Jesus  were 
merely  the  natural  result  of  His  sympathy  on  seeing 
suffering  and  need.  He  saw  a  suffering  sick  man,  His 
sympathy  was  touched  and  His  kind  heart  responded 
with  the  impulse  to  do  all  He  could  to  help  him.  Hav- 
ing the  power  of  God  at  His  disposal  He  could,  so  He 
did,  entirely  heal  such  persons. 

But  if,  as  we  believe,  Jesus  is  really  God,  one  with 
the  Father  and  the  expression  of  His  character,  God's 
heart  must  be  the  same  as  the  heart  of  Jesus.  God  the 
Father  must  feel  the  same  sympathy  for  that  suffering 
one  and  the  same  desire  to  relieve  and  heal  him  as  Jesus 
did.  "Why  then  does  He  not  do  it  ?  God  sees  now  the 
millions  of  suffering  men  all  over  the  world.  He  has 
the  same  sympathy  and  same  strong  desire  to  relieve 
them  that  we  saw  in  Jesus.  Why  then  does  He  allow 
them  to  go  on  in  suffering  instead  of  performing  a 
miracle  and  healing  them  as  Jesus  did  ? 

The  reason  is  because  with  His  infinite  view  of  all 
the  universe  and  of  all  time  He  can  see  decisive  reasons 
why  it  is  best  for  nature  to  have  its  way  and  the  suf- 
fering run  its  normal  course.  Jesus  did  not  have  that 
wide  view  and  that  knowledge.  In  all  the  view  that 
was  open  to  His  consciousness  there  was  only  the  ap- 
peal and  pity  urging  Him  to  help  and  nothing  to  offset 
it.  And  so  He  always  did  heal  when  the  appeal 
came. 

It  was  that  which  made  the  difference.  The  heart 
was  the  same  in  both,  and  there  was  the  same  purpose 


THE  INCARNATION  301 

to  do  the  best  in  view  of  all  the  facts  in  sight.  And 
yet  when  He  and  the  Father  both  looked  at  the  same 
suffering,  and  both  had  the  same  pity  and  the  same 
strong  desire  to  give  relief,  Jesus  does  heal  and  the 
Father  does  not.  And  the  reason  is  because  Jesus  is 
human,  bound  only  by  the  laws  of  human  responsibili- 
ties and  seeing  only  with  the  measure  of  human 
knowledge,  while  the  Father  must  see  and  act  from  the 
view-point  of  the  whole  universe  and  eternity. 

If  we  wish  for  a  definition  then  we  may  say  that  the 
miracles  of  Jesus  are  the  product  of  divine  power  placed 
at  the  disposal  of  human  knowledge  and  human  inter- 
ests. They  show  us  how  God  would  act  if  He  saw 
things  as  we  see  them.  They  are  therefore  the  best  pos- 
sible revelation  to  us  of  the  heart  of  God,  for  they 
show  us  His  heart  not  engaged  with  the  problems  of 
infinity  and  eternity,  which  would  be  entirely  unintel- 
ligible to  us,  but  show  us  His  heart  as  it  would  be  in 
our  environment  and  facing  our  problems,  so  doing 
things  we  can  understand. 

It  is  quite  appropriate  then  that  the  recorded  life  of 
Jesus  should  be  found  so  full  of  miraculous  acts.  Those 
very  miracles  are  the  proof,  as  they  are  the  result,  of 
His  true  humanity.  But  more  than  that,  they  reveal 
to  us  the  heart  of  God  as  nothing  else  could  reveal  it, 
and  enable  us  to  understand  it  and  feel  it  as  no  other 
way  of  revealing  it  could  do.  They  are  therefore  just 
the  acts  best  adapted  to  make  us  really  know  God  and 
thus  make  us  desire  to  come  into  fellowship  with  Him. 
And  that  was  the  supreme  purpose  Jesus  had  in  be- 
coming man. 


II 

ATONEMENT 

THERE  remains  still  one  more  very  interesting 
problem.  Under  that  conception  of  religion 
and  of  Christ's  mission  which  we  are  follow 
ing  here  what  shall  we  say  about  what  is  usually  called 
"  Atonement "  ?  What  was  Christ's  relation  to  the  sins 
of  the  world  ? 

If  God  assumes  the  personality  of  a  man  and  stands 
among  us  sharing  all  the  ordinary  experiences  of  life, 
He  must  in  that  capacity  come  in  contact  with  sin.  In 
that  case  what  must  be  His  attitude  towards  it  ?  In 
what  relation  will  He  stand  to  the  sinful  men  on  ac- 
count of  it,  or  what  will  be  the  results  of  His  coming 
in  contact  with  it  in  that  capacity  ? 

We  may  say  at  once  that  He  will  not  in  that  capac- 
ity meet  sin  as  judge  to  inflict  punishment  upon  it. 
True  this  person  who  is  incarnate  is  God  and  is  the 
same  being  that  was  the  creator  and  is  the  moral  ruler 
of  the  world.  Moreover  it  is  distinctly  declared  that 
He  is  the  same  one  who  in  the  end  shall  pronounce 
judgment  upon  all  men.  But  we  are  considering  now 
this  one  specific  enterprise  or  project  for  wrhich  He  has 
come  into  the  world.  In  this  specific  enterprise  for 
which  He  became  incarnate  He  does  not  meet  sin  and 
the  sinner  as  judge  at  all  (John  5  :  45  ;  8:15).  That 
belongs  to  another  enterprise  and  another  department 

302 


ATONEMENT  303 

of  His  activity  entirely.  As  incarnate  and  come  for 
fellowship  God's  attitude  will  not  be  that  of  the  pun- 
isher  of  sin. 

And  we  may  also  say  that  His  primary  aim  and  pur- 
pose will  not  be  the  task  of  freeing  us  from  the  pollu- 
tion of  sin  and  giving  us  power  to  overcome  it,  even 
though  most  important  help  does  come  to  us  from  Him 
in  that  respect.  That,  as  we  have  seen,  is  right  in  line 
with  the  very  essence  of  God's  evolution  process  which 
He  is  carrying  on  in  nature,  so  it  could  not  be  the  pri- 
mary purpose  in  this  special  personal  enterprise. 

His  purpose  in  becoming  incarnate  did  not  have  any 
relation  to  sin  in  any  way  primarily.  It  did  have 
practically  most  vital  and  important  relation  to  sin, 
but  it  was  all  as  a  secondary  matter  and  an  indirect 
result. 

Love  His  Supreme  Motive 

His  one  fundamental  purpose  in  all  the  incarnate  life 
was  fellowship,  and  all  His  attitudes  and  relations  must 
have  been  such  as  would  grow  out  of  that.  The  ruling 
motive  of  all  His  incarnate  life  must  have  been  that 
which  is  the  characteristic  exercise  of  fellowship, 
namely,  kindness,  friendship  and  love. 

By  love  we  mean  real  human  affection, — all  that  the 
warmest  friendship  between  close  friends  is.  Not  some 
austere  and  exalted  religious  emotion,  but  this  very 
human  and  very  commonplace  thing,  affectionate  friend- 
ship. 

Too  often  we  look  to  everything  else  but  that  for  the 
motive  of  His  life.  We  see  a  prophet  revealing  the 
thoughts  of  God.    We  see  a  great  perfect  example. 


304  THE  SUPEKNATUKAL 

We  see  the  spirit  of  a  martyr  willing  to  die  to  fulfill 
a  great  trust  laid  upon  Him. 

He  did  indeed  do  and  feel  all  those  things,  but  they 
were  all  quite  secondary  to  the  one  great  motive  of  His 
life,  which  was  love, — the  common  kind  of  love, — the 
thing  that  makes  our  friends  dear  to  us. 

If  love  was  the  supreme  passion  and  motive  of  His 
life  His  attitude  towards  sin  must  be  conditioned  by 
that.  His  relation  to  sin  and  to  the  sinner  must  be 
that  which  is  appropriate  to  love  and  that  which 
would  be  produced  by  love.  If  His  one  purpose  in 
coming  was  to  be  a  great  friend  to  man  we  can  expect 
Him  to  do  anything  that  is  the  proper  province  of 
friendship, — everything  that  love  implies. 

Love  in  contact  with  sinful  men  would  want  to  do 
everything  it  could  to  make  them  better.  It  would 
warn,  teach,  persuade  them  and  try  to  set  such  an  ex- 
ample before  them  as  would  spontaneously  lead  them 
to  right  living,  and  it  would  want  to  give  them  direct 
help  by  the  power  of  God's  Spirit  in  their  hearts,  to 
achieve  the  better  life.  And  so  we  see  that  Jesus  would 
become  the  great  Teacher,  as  He  has  always  been  con- 
ceived to  be,  and  the  great  example  inspiring  men  to 
higher  things.  And  we  see  also  that  special  help  to  up- 
lift, rescue  or  reform  him,  might  ordinarily  be  expected 
to  be  received  by  any  man,  along  with  other  good  gifts, 
when  he  entered  into  the  fellowship  of  that  love. 

Love  Begets  Suffering 
But  there  is  one  other  attitude  that  a  friend  may 
have  towards  his  sinful  friend.     There  is  one  other 


ATONEMENT  305 

thing  that  he  may  do,  indeed  that  he  must  do  and  can- 
not avoid  doing  if  he  is  really  a  friend.  There  is  some- 
thing that  is  commonly  overlooked  as  an  office  of 
friendship,  but  in  this  case  it  is  the  most  important 
of  all,  and  the  key  to  the  whole  situation.  He  may 
suffer  for  the  sins  of  his  friend.  Indeed  in  as  far  as 
he  is  truly  a  friend  he  cannot  avoid  so  suffering. 

Not  only  when  the  sin  and  offense  is  against  himself 
will  he  suffer  directly  from  the  offense  itself.  That  is 
not  all.  In  all  cases  he  suffers.  He  suffers  pain  and 
shame  for  the  unworthiness  of  his  friend.  But  still 
more  significant,  he  suffers  directly  through  sympathy 
with  his  friend  the  evil  and  shame  which  the  sin  brings 
upon  that  friend. 

Love  may  be  defined  from  various  view-points,  but 
from  one  view-point  it  certainly  has  this  meaning  of 
"  sympathy  "  or  "  feeling  with  "  the  person  loved.  If 
you  love  a  person  very  much  you  will  feel  the  thrill 
of  any  joy  and  the  pain  of  any  suffering  you  see  him 
experiencing,  almost  or  quite  as  much  as  though  you 
were  experiencing  it  yourself. 

This  then  is  a  natural  and  inevitable  attitude  of 
friendship  towards  the  sins  of  a  friend.  By  virtue  of 
his  friendship  he  suffers  for  those  sins,  for  it  is  the  very 
essence  of  friendship  and  love  to  make  him  suffer  on 
account  of  them. 

It  is  this  that  forms  the  true  essence  of  what  we  call 
the  Atonement.  In  a  far  more  true  and  literal  sense 
than  even  the  older  theology  conceived,  Christ  did 
really  bear  the  sins  of  men  and  really  suffer  for  those 
sins. 


306  THE  SUPEKNATUEAL 

It  was  not  merely  in  some  mysterious  "forensic" 
sense, — some  technical  legal  relation.  Christ  had  the 
iniquity  of  men  laid  upon  Him  and  endured  the  penalty 
of  that  sin  in  the  most  literal  sense,  and  moreover  in  a 
way  that  we  are  very  familiar  with  in  our  own  lives. 
He  could  not  fail  to  do  so  if  love  was  the  passion  of 
His  life,  and  if  love  meant  the  same  with  Him  as  it 
does  with  us.  A  perfect  love  coupled  with  a  perfect 
knowledge  would  feel  the  penalty  of  the  other  man's 
sins  just  as  much  as  the  man  himself  did.  Indeed 
would  feel  it  far  more,  for  He  would  know  far  better 
than  the  man  himself  the  shamefulness  of  his  sins  and 
the  ruin  it  was  working  both  in  the  world  and  in  his 
own  soul. 

One  of  the  serious  mistakes  of  that  older  theology 
was  its  teaching  of  "  The  Impassibility  of  God,"— that 
it  was  impossible  for  Him  to  suffer,  that  His  existence 
was  always  and  altogether  wrapped  in  the  most  perfect 
and  placid  felicity.  On  the  contrary  we  might  almost 
say  that  God  is  the  greatest  sufferer  in  the  universe, — 
that  He  suffers  as  much  as  all  the  universe  together. 
For  wherever  there  is  suffering  experienced  by  any  one 
His  perfect  heart  of  love  feels  it  just  as  much  as  the 
person  concerned. 

This  does  not  of  course  mean  that  God  is  crippled 
and  crushed  under  an  agony  of  pain.  God's  infinite 
powers  are  so  great  that  all  that  vast  amount  of  suf- 
fering may  be  comparatively  only  like  one  atom  in  the 
immensity  of  His  infinite  life.  Nevertheless  He  does 
bear  and  feel  it  all.  And  one  of  the  effects  of  Christ 
coming  to  earth  incarnate  was  to  let  us  see  how  much 


ATONEMENT  307 

He  feels  it, — let  us  see  how  great  it  is,  by  letting  us  see 
its  effect  upon  Him  when  He  was  not  thus  sustained 
by  infinite  power.  We  shall  see  that  it  was  this  suffer- 
ing for  the  sins  of  men  and  not  the  nails  of  the  cross 
that  was  really  the  actual  cause  of  Christ's  death. 

The  Atonement  thus  is  something  that  necessarily 
results  from  God's  relation  of  love  and  fellowship  with 
men.  It  is  a  natural  and  inevitable  result  of  that  fel- 
lowship. It  is  the  essential  attitude  of  God's  love. 
He  had  before  that  same  love  and  that  same  feeling, 
but  the  Incarnation  by  exhibiting  the  life  of  God  in 
human  proportions  enables  us  for  the  first  time  to 
recognize  and  see  it  clearly. 

That  suffering  from  men's  sins  is  not  merely  a  de- 
tached  act,  not  merely  a  program  that  Jesus  went 
through.  It  is  simply  His  nature, — God's  nature,— ex- 
pressing itself,  and  it  appears  somewhat  wherever  God 
appears  personally  and  specially  to  men.  It  is  more  or 
less  the  undertone  of  all  the  Old  Testament  revelation 
of  God.  The  story  of  the  Atonement  is  not  something 
exclusively  confined  to  the  closing  chapters  of  the  four 
Gospels.  Atonement,  pain,  suffering  over  the  sins  of 
men  He  loves,  colours  the  whole  picture  of  God  in  all 
the  Bible,  Old  Testament  as  well  as  New. 

Atonement 
We  need  not  attempt  here  to  show  what  meaning 
this  fact  of  Christ's  suffering  thus  would  have  in  the 
moral  government  of  the  world,  and  how  it  might  con- 
tribute to  make  it  possible  that  God  could  pass  over 
sins  without  punishing  them,  as  though  they  had  been 


308  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

expiated.  That  is  a  matter  rather  for  Systematic  The- 
ology. Still  we  may  notice  that  our  forgiveness  could 
not  have  come  without  the  suffering,  for  the  fellowship 
and  love  which  brings  us  forgiveness  was  the  condition 
which  caused  that  suffering  and  death.  That  was  the 
price  He  had  to  pay  if  we  were  to  be  loved  and  for- 
given. He  could  not  love  us  and  receive  us  as  friends 
without  that  suffering.  In  that  sense  we  may  say  He 
had  to  die  if  we  were  to  come  into  fellowship  with 
Him  and  He  with  us,  and  thus  we  could  say  that  His 
death  purchased  our  redemption  from  punishment  and 
death. 

He  really  made  His  life  a  sacrifice  for  sin  (Isa. 
53 :  10),  for  it  was  sin,  the  sins  of  men,  that  crushed 
out  that  life  and  caused  His  death.  Not  merely  that 
Pilate  and  the  Jews  in  their  wickedness  nailed  Him  to 
the  cross  and  killed  Him.  That  has  come  to  seem  in 
these  days  altogether  too  artificial  and  far  fetched  a 
ground  for  a  world  salvation.  It  was  not  the  soldiers' 
hammer  and  nails  that  wrought  the  miracle  of  the  re- 
demption of  the  world. 

Bare  six  hours  on  the  cross  was  not  enough  in  itself 
to  cause  His  death,  as  Pilate  by  his  wonder  testifies 
(Mark  15:44).  Especially  is  that  plain  when  we  con- 
sider all  the  particulars.  Something  else  aside  from 
the  nail  wounds  was  a  factor  and  a  main  factor  in 
bringing  the  end,  as  has  always  been  recognized.  We 
know  that  mental  suffering  can  produce  death,  and  all 
the  recorded  circumstances  seem  to  indicate  that  He 
died  from  some  form  of  acute  mental  agony  rather 
than  the  physical  wounds.     The  intense  agony  in  Geth- 


ATONEMENT  309 

semane  also  proves  that  there  was  something  else  at 
work  besides  the  mere  bodily  wounds. 

Love  Produced  His  Death 
We  need  not  be  at  a  loss  to  divine  what  that  some- 
thing was.  We  know  of  this  pain  and  suffering 
through  sympathy  over  men's  sins  which  was  pressing 
upon  Him  all  the  time,  of  such  intensity  that  the  only 
wonder  is  that  it  had  not  taken  His  life  long  before. 
Doubtless  it  would  have  done  so  but  for  the  divine  help 
and  strength  acquired  during  many  long  night  vigils  of 
prayer  alone  on  the  mountains. 

It  was  His  love,  so  great  as  to  make  Him  feel  the 
pangs  of  all  our  pains  and  sins  which  made  the  burden 
that  ceaselessly  pressed  upon  Him,  and  which  won  Him 
the  title  of  the  "  Man  of  Sorrows."  We  may  not  be 
able  to  enter  fully  into  the  psychology  of  His  experi- 
ences, and  know  just  how  far  during  His  life  He  could 
see  the  sins  of  men  and  feel  their  pains.  Doubtless  He 
could  only  see  with  a  man's  capacity  and  feel  in  pro- 
portion. Human  strength  could  not  have  endured  the 
load  a  single  moment  if  His  love  had  been  able  to  see 
the  sins  of  all  the  world  and  fully  feel  its  pain.  He 
saw  as  a  man  the  griefs  and  sins  of  all  the  men  around 
Him  that  He  knew  and  loved,  and  that  was  a  sufficient 
load  for  Him  to  bear  then.  As  He  advanced  in  His  min- 
istry, came  in  contact  with  more  men,  and  especially  as 
He  saw  more  clearly  their  wickedness  and  felt  the  pang 
of  it,  the  sorrow  deepened  more  and  more  upon  Him. 

Something  at  the  end  made  a  sudden  access  of  that 
pain  too  great  for  the  measure  of  human  strength  to 


310  THE  SUPERNATURAL 

bear,  and  it  crushed  out  His  life.  It  may  have  been 
that  just  at  the  end  His  mind  was  somehow  miracu- 
lously opened  to  know  and  feel  the  sins  of  all  men, 
with  its  terrible  weight  of  pain  and  shame.  But  we 
are  not  shut  up  necessarily  to  such  an  explanation. 
The  natural  circumstances  would  seem  to  be  quite  suf- 
ficient. That  terrible  saturnalia  of  sin  and  blasphemy 
through  which  He  was  dragged  just  at  the  end  would 
seem  to  furnish  a  sufficient  cause.  Especially  since  we 
know  that  He  had  a  deep  and  tender  love  for  each  one 
even  of  those  men  that  were  so  raving  in  blasphemy 
and  hate. 

It  is  hard  for  us  to  realize  that  He  could  have  really 
loved  all  those  men  who  were  hounding  Him  to  death, 
— loved  them  so  deeply  that  He  felt  their  sin  and 
shame  as  though  it  were  His  own.  Yet  we  know  that 
He  did  thus  love  them  and  must  have  suffered  intensely 
from  it  all.  What  would  a  father  feel  to  see  his  one 
dearly  loved  son  so  debase  and  debauch  himself  ?  Mul- 
tiply that  pain  by  the  hundreds  that  Jesus  saw  thus 
debauching  themselves,  and  remember  that  His  love 
was  far  deeper  and  more  constant  than  even  that  of  a 
father  for  an  erring  boy.  All  this  in  addition  to  the 
ever-increasing  load  of  the  same  kind  that  He  was  al- 
ready bearing,  and  is  it  any  wonder  that  the  strain  be- 
came too  great  and  His  life  gave  way  ? 

That  intense  agony  in  the  garden  the  night  before, — 
it  was  the  anticipation  of  this  that  caused  that  agony, 
not  the  fear  of  death  or  physical  wounds.  What  to 
Him  was  the  little  suffering  of  the  nails  in  His  flesh 
compared  to  this  suffering  of  love  ? 


ATONEMENT  311 

But  the  pain  became  too  great  for  human  strength 
to  bear.  He  bowed  His  head  upon  the  cross  and 
yielded  up  His  life.  Sin  had  done  its  worst  but  His 
love  remained  constant.  And  His  Father  glorified 
Him  and  endued  Him  again  with  His  divine  strength. 

That  is  the  real  meaning  of  Jesus,  the  Son  of  God 
come  down  to  earth  to  enter  our  fellowship  and  win  us 
to  be  His  friends.  He  has  not  finished  a  task  and  gone 
away.  It  was  not  a  task  but  a  fellowship.  And 
though  unseen  He  is  still  as  truly  now  as  then,  "  with 
us  always." 

He  has  just  the  same  love  and  sympathy  now  as 
then,  only  now  He  has  infinite  power  to  sustain  the 
load.  He  has  still  the  same  desire  to  bestow  love  and 
fellowship  that  brought  Him  here  at  first,  and  the  same 
heart  yearning  for  us  to  come  unto  Him  that  He  may 
love  us  and  help  us  and  be  our  friend. 

Let  us  not  stop  to  question  what  it  is  that  saves  us 
from  punishment  and  brings  forgiveness  of  sins.  Let 
us  just  look  upon  Him  as  He  is,  feeling  the  hurt  and 
shame  of  all  our  sins,  because  He  loves  us,  yet  loving 
us  still  with  all  our  sins,  and  holding  out  His  hands  to 
us  in  love,  saying  "  Come  Unto  Me." 


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ALBERT  L.  VAIL 

Portraiture  of  Jesus  in  the  Gospels 

i2mo,  cloth,  net  75c. 

A  fourfold  portrait  of  Jesus  as  He  stands  out  on  the  can- 
vas of  each  of  the  Four  Gospels.  The  varying  and  dis- 
tinctive shadings  of  the  four  pictures,  are  not,  Mr.  Vail  con- 
tends, a  matter  of  accident  but  of  Divine  arrangement  and 
design.  Our  I^ord  is  thus  presented  in  a  fourfold  aspect  in 
order  that  His  appeal  to  various  classes  of  mankind  might 
be  the  more  manifold. 

FRANK  E.  WILSON,   B.D. 

Contrasts  in  the  Character  of  Christ 

i2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.00. 

Jesus  Christ  is  still  the  key  to  the  modern  situation.  No 
matter  what  "up-to-date"  methods  of  reform  and  reclamation 
spring  to  life,  the  message  of  Christ  is  the  one  great  solution 
of  the  problems  confronting  humanity.  From  this  position 
Dr.  Wilson  leads  his  readers  to  a  contemplation  of  an  abid- 
ing Jesus,  and  to  a  consideration  of  many  modern  points  of 
contact  contained  in  His  all-sufficient  Gospel. 

WILLIAM  BRUCE  DOYLE 

The  Holy  Family 

As  Viewed  and  Viewing  in  His  Unfolding  Minis- 
try,   ^mo,  cloth,  net  75c. 

This  book  covers  new  ground;  for  although  separate 
sketches  of  individual  members  of  Joseph's  family  abound,  a 
study  of  the  family  group  as  a  whole, — one  marked  with  satis- 
factory detail  remained  to  be  furnished.  This  has  been  ably 
supplied.  The  author's  work  is  everywhere  suffused  with 
reverence,  as  becometh  one  writing  of  some  of  the  most  en- 
deared traditions  cherished  by  the  human  race. 


BOOKLETS 

DAVID  DE  FOREST  BURRELL      Auth„ ./  « Th.  cr 

The  Losft  Star 

An  Idyll  of  the  Desert.    i6mo,  net  35c. 

An  appealing  story  of  a  Shepherd's  search  for  the  Star. 
It  is  so  tender,  so  sweet,  so  Christ-like,  it  is  sure  to  captivate 
everyone. 


Princeton  Theological  Semmary-Speer 


1    1012  01007  6380 


